THE  ROMANCE 

OF  THE  WORLD'S 

FISHERIES 


/TiimiT\ 

LIBRARY 

VMtVMSITY  OP      I 
\CMIfOI»«IA/ 


THE   ROMANCE   OF 
THE  WORLD'S   FISHERIES 


A  DREADED  CATCH 

The  conger  eel  is  a  dangerous  fish  on  board  a  small  boat.  If  it  once  gets  a  hold  ot 
a  man's  leg,  it  is  impossible  to  make  it  disengage  its  teeth.  Even  when  its  head  is  cut 
off,  its  mouth  must  be  prised  open. 


THE    ROMANCE   OF 
THE  WORLD'S  FISHERIES 

INTERESTING    DESCRIPTIONS    OF 

THE  MANY  &  CURIOUS  METHODS 

OF    FISHING    IN    ALL    PARTS    OF 

THE   WORLD 


BY 

SIDNEY    WRIGHT 


WITH    TWENTY-FOUR    ILLUSTRATIONS 


PHILADELPHIA 
J.    B.    LIPPINCOTT    COMPANY 

LONDON:    SEELEY  &  CO.   LIMITED 
1908 


Printed  in  Great  Britain 


W75 


PREFACE 

IN  an  account  of  the  world's  fisheries  it  is  impossible 
to  use  the  word  "  fish "  only  in  its  strictly  scientific 
meaning;  for  what  are  everywhere  known  as  "fish- 
eries "  include  the  taking  of  many  creatures  which  are  not 
really  fish.     Whaling,  sealing,  turtle-catching,  and  pearl- 
diving  must  necessarily  have  a  place  in  the  following 
pages. 

Little  attempt  has  been  made  to  treat  the  subject  from 
the  commercial  or  industrial  point  of  view.  The  author 
has  rather  endeavoured  to  give  an  animated  picture  of 
the  fisherman's  life,  of  his  methods,  his  hardships  and 
adventures,  his  disappointments,  and  his  hardly  won 
successes.  The  best  authorities  have  been  consulted,  but 
many  of  the  details  are  drawn  from  the  author's  own 
experience. 


046 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTORY 

PAGE 

Fishing-  an  occupation  to  which  uncivilised  man  would  naturally 
turn — Seasons  and  preferences — Other  products  of  the  sea 
besides  fish — A  few  words  on  fishing  from  a  historical  point 
of  view  .  .  .  .  ...  17 

CHAPTER  II 
THE  FISHERMAN'S  TOOLS 

Various  means  of  obtaining-  fish — The  push-net — Rod  and  line — 
Bait— Means  of  getting  nearer  to  the  fish— The  raft— The 
open  boat— The  smack — Tackle  used  in  boat-fishing — Long 
lines  and  hand  lines — Trawls,  drift-nets,  seines,  moored  nets, 
and  dredges — Pots — Another  important  item  ;  experience — 
The  fascination  of  the  fisherman's  calling  .  .  #  .  22 

CHAPTER  III 

TRAWLING 

"Off"  with  the  boats— The  start— The  fisherman's  attitude 
towards  strangers— An  East  Coast  trawler — The  net — The 
fisherman  at  sea — Shooting  the  trawl — Special  "catches" — 
The  net  hauled  up — Where  the  hard  work  comes  in — The 
steam  carrier — What  is  done  with  the  catch — Steam-trawling 
— Little  private  ventures  «  .  *  .  .30 

CHAPTER  IV 

SHRIMPING,   MUSSELLING,   AND   LINE-FISHING 

Shrimps — The  push-net — On  board  a  Dutch  -visschers-boot— 
Dutch  fishermen — Preparations  for  boiling — Hauling  up  the 
shrimp-net — Emptying — The  catch — Sorting — 'Ware  crabs  ! 
— And  fox-fish — Boiling — Hot  shrimps — Danger  of  the  trade — 
Prawns  and  prawn-catching — Mussels— What  becomes  of 

9 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

them  all—Transplanting — Mussels  by  the  barge-load— Line- 
fishing — Hand  lines — Long  lines — Ready-baited  hooks — Pay- 
ing out  the  lines — "Bending-on" — Two  or  three  miles  of 
lines— Bringing  in  the  catch — Longer  lines — "  Bulters"  .  42 

CHAPTER  V 

SALMON-FISHING  AS  AN   INDUSTRY 

The  salmon — Annual  migration — Jumping — Spawning — Fry, 
smolt,  and  grilse — The  Columbian  grounds — Trap-nets — 
Seines— Hauling  In  byhorse-power — The  fish-wheel— Salmon- 
fishing  among  the  Indians — Canadian  moored  gill-nets — 
Scandinavian  fishery — The  Sogne  and  Hardanger  fjords — 
Natural  salmon-traps — Seines  and  net-weirs  —  Lapps  and 
Finns  as  fishers — The  sea-swallow — Salmon-netting  at  home 
— Close  time — Stake-nets  and  stow-nets  .  59 

CHAPTER  VI 

FISHING   AS  A  SPORT 

Angling  —  Salmon  -  fishing  —  Tackle  —  Ireland  and  Norway  — 
Piscator  Jit,  non  nascitur — Casting — A  real  bite — A  long 
spell  of  hard  work — " Sulking" — Gaffing — Fishing  in  the 
Jotunfeld — High  jumpers — To  America  for  sport — The  tarpon 
— Tarpon  tackle — A  nasty  sea — A  big  leap — Towed  along — 
Fairly  hooked— Sharks  1— Other  sport  .  .  .  73 

CHAPTER  VII 

THE  COD-FISHERY  (l) 

The  Breton  "Icelanders"— Seeing  the  fleet  off— A  twelve- 
hundred-mile  voyage  In  a  cockle-shell — Life  on  board — 
Iceland  in  sight — Cod-fishing — An  average  catch — A  big 
catch  in  a  calm — Cleaning  and  salting — Breaks  in  the 
monotony — Homeward  bound  «  .  ,  .  88 

CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  COD-FISHERY  (ll) 

The  American  cod-fishery — The  Newfoundland  Banks — Dory 
work — Hand-line  fishing — Drawbacks  to  it — French  trawling 
— No  piracy  allowed — Pulling  up  the  trawl — Clearing  and 
rebaiting — Cleaning  and  drying — The  gill-net — Its  special 
utility — Its  mechanism  .  .  •  •  •  100 

10 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  IX 

THE  OYSTER 

PAGE 

Where  the  oyster  is,  and  is  not,  found — The  Essex  and  North 
Kent  "flats" — Development  —  Re -stocking  the  beds  — 
"Brood" — A  day  of  a  dredger's  life — Description  of  the 
dredge — Hauling  up — The  oyster's  companions  in  the  dredge 
— Its  enemies — Measuring  up  the  "wash" — The  collecting 
boat— Other  kinds  of  oysters — Typhoid  1  .  .  .  1 1 1 

CHAPTER  X 

UNITED  STATES  FISH  AND  FISHERMEN 

The  States  fishermen—The  "  foreigners  "—The  spring  mackerel- 
fishing — The  "purse-seine" — Fishing  by  night — How  the 
net  is  cleared — Shore-weirs — Line-fishing  for  mackerel — 
The  herring— The  mullet— A  big  catch— The  "  red  snapper" 
— Other  American  fish  .  .  .  .  .  124 

CHAPTER  XI 

THE  BRITISH   HERRING-FISHERY 

The  herring  —  The  lugger  —  Night- work  —  Signs  I  —  "  Lythe  " 
— Shooting  the  tackle— How  the  drift-net  is  worked — The 
trial  shot— Shooting  a  "fleet"— The  net  filling— Hauling  in 
— The  first  strike— A  second  shot— More  than  they  can 
carry— "  Maze,"  "cran,"  and  "  last  "—Getting  rid  of  the 
catch  .  »  t  *  .  .  133 

CHAPTER  XII 

FISHING   IN  THE  MEDITERRANEAN 

Possibilities  of  the  Mediterranean  fisheries— Migration  of  the 
anchovy — Shooting  the  seine  for  anchovies — The  moored 
net— Some  of  its  occupants— The  fisherman's  friends  and 
enemies— Sharks — Saw-fish  and  sword-fish — The  tunny — 
Setting  the  nets — Slaughtering  the  catch — Another  Sicilian 
industry — Line-fishing  .  » >  •'.  .  .  .  147 

CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  PILCHARD— THE  STURGEON 

The  Cornish  fisherman— The  pilchard— Shoaling — Drift-nets 
and  seines — The  "seine-boat" — Shooting  the  net — The  stop- 

II 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

seines— Sharks  !— "  Tucking  "—Taking  the  fish  ashore— 
The  factory — The  sturgeon — Russian  sturgeon  and  sterlet 
fishing — Isinglass  and  caviare  .  .  .  156 

CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  CATCHING  OF  LOBSTERS,  CRABS,   AND  WHELKS 

Fish  that  are  caught  in  pots— The  lobster— Colonial  fish— The 
Bergen  and  Christiansund  lobster-fishery — Crayfish — Crabs 
— The  hermit — Land-crabs — Tropical  and  fresh-water  crabs 
—Crabbing— Whelks— Fishing  with  "trots"— Whelking  as 
a  trade— The  boats— The  pots— The  fish  *  .  .  167 

CHAPTER  XV 

THE  FISHERIES  OF  THE  FAR  EAST 

China,  Japan,  Siam,  etc. — A  fish-eating  people — Fresh-water 
fishing — Chinese  angling — Fishing  with  the  help  of  cormo- 
rants—How the  birds  are  trained — Good  and  bad  divers- 
Two  birds  to  one  fish — The  dip-net — River-fishing  by  hand 
— Sea  fisheries ;  the  junk  and  the  lorcha — A  Portuguese 
colony — "  Archers"  and  "  fighting-fish  " — Japan's  fisheries — 
The  salmon  and  trout  .  .  .  .  .  179 

CHAPTER  XVI 

SOME  REMARKS  ON  THE  IRISH  FISHERIES 

Comparative  poverty  of  the  western  fisheries— Possible  reasons 
— Present  state  of  the  Irish  fisheries— The  Irish  fisherman — 
Trawling  and  long-line  fishing — Congers,  sharks,  and  sea- 
cats — Trawling  on  rocky  ground — "Man  overboard!" — Ling, 
halibut,  and  ray— Eels— Tory  Island  .  .  .  .  191 

CHAPTER  XVII 

SOME  STRANGE  FISH  AND  STRANGE   FISHERMEN 

Decay  of  primitive  methods— South  American  fisheries — The 
arapaima — Harpoons  and  tethered  arrows — The  armado — 
Catching  fish  on  land — The  diodon — Fishing  in  Tierra  del 
Fuego — African  river-fishing — The  Indian  mango-fish — The 
modern  Galilean  fisherman — South  Sea  Island  fish — Proas 
and  Hawaiian  "outriggers" — Australian  and  Arctic  fishing  203 

12 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XVIII 

PEARLS  AND  PEARL-DIVING 

PAGE 

How  pearls  grow — Loose  and  fixed  pearls — The  fish  that  contain 
them— The  Ceylon  Banks — Native  divers — The  pearl  fleet — 
Scene  in  the  Gulf  of  Manaar — A  noisy  crew — The  " shifts" 
— Method  of  lowering — Sharks — A  curious  superstition — 
Landing  and  piling  the  oysters— How  they  open— Varieties 
of  pearls — Other  grounds — Dredging  for  pearl-sheila — The 
argentine  .  .  .  .  ...  218 

CHAPTER  XIX 

WHALES  AND  WHALING 

A  profitable  if  risky  industry — One  or  two  historical  details — 
The  home  of  the  whale — Old  and  new  methods  of  catching 
him — Harpoons — "Blowing" — The  whale's  trail — Throwing 
the  harpoon — A  nerve-destroying  trade — The  tow-line — 
Other  shots  at  the  monster — A  cut  at  the  tail— The  death — 
Cutting  up— The  whale's  enemies — Rorquals  and  cachalots 
— A  modern  whaler  and  its  equipment — The  harpoon-gun 
and  the  bomb-lance — A  disappointing  whale — Various  uses 
to  which  the  carcass  is  devoted — Sperm  oil  and  ambergris  .  231 

CHAPTER  XX 

HOW  SPONGES  ARE  PROCURED 

What  sponge  is — Where  it  grows — Sponge-diving — The  un- 
dressed diver— A  "dressed"  diver  at  work — His  dress — 
The  diver  on  the  bottom — Signals — Coming  up — Dredging 
for  sponges  —  Awkward  gear  —  Sponge-harpooning  —  The 
spy-glass  —  The  Adriatic  trade  —  Sponge-culture  —  Florida 
Keys — Sponge-hooking  in  the  Bahamas  .  .  .  250 

CHAPTER  XXI 

DOLPHINS,   PORPOISES,   AND   MANATEES 

The  dolphin — Misconceptions  about  it — Dolphin-catching  among 
the  Faroe  islanders — Fresh- water  dolphins  :  the  Inia  and 
the  Soosoo— The  grampus — Porpoises — Fishermen's  hatred 
of  them — The  narwhal — Its  tusk — An  Iceland  narwhal-hunt 
— The  Greenlanders'  method — The  Caaing  whale  and  the 
beluga — Trapping  and  seining  belugas — The  dugong  and 
the  manatee— A  manatee-hunt  .  ...  265 

13 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XXII 

TURTLES  AND  TURTLE-CATCHING 


PAGE 


Turtles  and  tortoises—The  terrapin  or  snapper — Catching 
turtles  with  fish  —  The  remora  —  Shooting  with  tethered 
arrows — Turtle-diving — Tortoise-shell— A  horrible  method 
of  obtaining  it — The  hawk's-bill— Its  shell — Seining  for 
turtles  in  South  America — The  Galapagos  tortoise— The 
green  turtle — Method  of  taking  him  .  .  .  .  284 

CHAPTER  XXIII 

AFTER  THE  SEAL  AND  THE  WALRUS 

The  pinnipeds  —  The  seals  and  their  young  —  Seal-hunting 
among  the  Eskimos — The  seal  as  a  fighter — The  Eskimos' 
summer  season — Varieties  of  seals — Sealing  among  civilised 
fleets — Methods — Dangers  of  the  work — A  seal-massacre — 
How  the  seal-colonies  are  founded— Sea-elephants,  sea-lions, 
and  sea-bears — The  walrus — His  enemies — A  big  catch — 
Modern  methods  of  walrus-hunting  .  .  .  .  297 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

A  DREADED  CATCH     ....          Frontispiece 

PAGE 

A  GREAT  CATCH  OF  MACKEREL,  LOWESTOFT      .  28 

GUTTING  THE  FISH  ON  BOARD  A  DANISH  BANKS  TRAWLER   .  39 

THE  MUSSEL-BAITERS                .              .              ...  54 

NETTING  SALMON  FROM  COLOMBIA  RIVER,  OREGON,  U.S.A.  62 

SALMON-NETTING  IN  NORWAY  .              .              ...  68 

SALMON-FISHING  FOR  PLEASURE  IN  A  HIGHLAND  RIVER        .  74 

FISHERMEN  LAYING  OUT  HERRING  FOR  SALE  AT  LOWESTOFT  134 
ESTIMATING  A  CATCH  OF  HERRING  IN  NORWAY  .           .       .138 

HERRING-DRIVING  IN  NORWAY               .              .           .        .  144 

PILCHARD-FISHING      ..            .              .              .                  .  158 

FISHING  WITH  CORMORANTS  IN  CHINA  .              .          .       .  182 

FISHING  IN  JAPAN       .              .              .              .           .       .  188 

FISHING  ON  THE  NILE              .              .              .                  .  210 

A  SPIDER'S  WEB  AS  A  FISHING-NET       .              .          .       .  214 

ESKIMOS  SPEARING  FISH           .              .              .                  .  216 

BOATS   WAITING    NEAR   THE    GuARDSHIP    AT   THE    CEYLON 

PEARL  FISHERIES            .              .              ...  220 

A  GROUP  OF  CEYLON  PEARL  DIVERS     .              .           .       .  228 

IS 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

HARPOONING  A  SPERM  WHALE               .              .           .       .  236 

SEVERING  A  WHALE'S  VERTEBRAL  COLUMN          .           .       .  240 

HAULING  UP  A  SPONGE-DIVER  .             .             ...  256 

DOLPHIN-HUNTING      .              .              .              ...  268 

TURTLE-FISHING         .              .                                      .        .  290 

AN  ESKIMO  METHOD  OF  SEAL-FISHING  .              .        ....   -    .  30° 


16 


THE  EOMANCE  OF  THE 
WORLD'S  FISHEBIES 


CHAPTER  I 
INTRODUCTORY 

Fishing  an  occupation  to  which  uncivilised  man  would  naturally  turn 
— Seasons  and  preferences— Other  products  of  the  sea  besides  fish 
—A  few  words  on  fishing  from  an  historical  point  of  view. 

THE  catching  of  fish  is  an  occupation  which  must 
have  arisen  at  a  very  early  stage  in  the  history  of 
the  human  race ;  for  man's  staple  food  is  necessarily 
decided  by  his  surroundings,  and  it  was  as  natural  for 
a  maritime  people  to  look  to  the  sea  as  its  provider,  as 
it  was  for  forest  inhabitants  to  sustain  life  on  the  fruit 
of  trees  or  the  flesh  of  birds  and  beasts.     Early  man 
could  not,  or  would  not,  cultivate  the  soil;  therefore  he 
must   either   content   himself   with  food  that  cost   him 
little  or  no  trouble  to  obtain — vegetable  products  that 
did  not  call  for  cultivation,  eggs,  or  shell-fish  that  lay  on 
the  shore — or  else  he  must  combine  business  with  pleasure 
by  obeying  his  instinct  to  hunt ;  by  living  on  fish,  flesh, 
or  fowl,  the  procuring  of  which  had  a  seasoning  of  chance, 
B  17 


INTRODUCTORY 

or  excitement,  or  danger  in  it.  Often  the  land  monster 
or  the  sea  monster  seemed  to  threaten  him  with  death 
whether  he  hunted  it  or  no ;  therefore  he  felt  driven  to 
slay  it  in  self-defence ;  and,  when  slain,  what  was  more 
natural  than  that  its  flesh  should  be  eaten  and  its  non- 
edible  parts  utilised  as  clothing,  ornament,  tool,  or 
weapon  ? 

When  our  fathers  had  learned  the  art  of  making  and 
managing  rafts  or  boats,  they  found  that  many  fish  which 
could  not  be  obtained  in  shallow  water  might  easily  be 
caught  at  some  distance  from  the  shore.  The  appliances 
for  catching  them — baited  hooks,  nets,  and  baskets  made 
of  skin  or  fibre  or  twigs — would  suggest  themselves, 
necessity  being  the  mother  of  invention. 

Then,  as  agriculture  and  the  mechanical  arts  developed, 
it  became  the  business  of  those  who  still  refused  to  follow 
a  land  trade,  to  sell  or  barter  the  fish  which  they  did  not 
need  to  people  who  had  not  the  time  or  the  inclination 
to  procure  such  food  for  themselves.  And  it  was  in  this 
way  that  an  industry  began  which,  to-day  in  many 
countries,  ranks  in  importance  with  agriculture,  and  often 
with  manufactures. 

By  observation  the  fisherman  or  the  fish-eater  gradually 
learned  that  at  one  time  of  the  year  certain  fish  were  more 
palatable  or  more  plentiful  than  at  another ;  that  during 
some  months  shell-fish,  for  example,  were  nutritious, 
during  others  poisonous ;  thus  the  "  season "  for  any 
special  fish  became  recognised  and  defined.  As  the  con- 
sumer's palate  grew  more  discriminating,  one  fish  was 
found  to  be  richer  in  taste  than  another ;  and  so  creatures 

18 


INTRODUCTORY 

like  the  turbot,  the  sole,  and  the  oyster  were  ruthlessly 
and  greedily  pursued,  to  the  partial  neglect  of,  say,  the 
humbler  herring  and  skate,  which  continued  to  increase 
and  multiply,  commanding  but  a  poor  market-price  in 
comparison  with  their  scarcer  and  more  succulent  brethren. 
Thus  to-day  the  fishmonger  who  can  afford  to  sell  a 
herring  for  a  halfpenny  must  charge  a  shilling  for 
a  sole. 

From  the  further  cultivation  of  arts  and  crafts,  the 
man  of  the  coast  realised  at  length  that  fish  had  other 
profitable  uses  than  those  of  the  table;  from  increased 
knowledge  of  navigation,  from  experiments  in  diving, 
and  from  watching  the  beach  at  low  tide,  he  learned  that 
the  sea  had  other  saleable  commodities  to  offer  besides 
fish  in  the  strict  sense.  For  ages  he  had  adorned  himself 
and  his  family  with  sealskin,  sharks'  teeth,  shells,  coral ; 
had  converted  fish-bones  into  knives  and  war-hatchets 
and  needles  and  hooks ;  had  collected  cowries  for  his 
currency,  and  amber  to  conjure  with;  and  perhaps  it 
was  not  such  a  very  wide  step  thence  to  the  preserving 
and  utilising  of  fish  skins  and  oil,  or  to  a  systematic 
search  for — and  regular  trade  in — pearls,  whalebone, 
sponge,  or  the  purple  dye  secreted  within  the  shell  of 
the  Tyrian  murex. 

From  the  time  that  the  fisheries  became  once  firmly 
established  as  a  recognised  industry,  there  is  not  a  great 
deal  to  be  said  as  to  the  history  of  their  development. 
Probably  the  reason  for  this  is  that,  unlike  most  trades, 
fishing  does  not  easily  lend  itself  to  improvements  and 
new  fashions.  The  fisherman  thinks  that  what  was  good 

19 


INTRODUCTORY 

enough  for  his  father  is  good  enough  for  him.  Companies 
may  have  taken  the  trade  out  of  the  hands  of  indi- 
viduals ;  steam-vessels  may  have  ousted  some  of  the 
old  smacks ;  but  methods  and  implements  generally 
have  undergone  but  little  alteration  even  in  a  couple 
of  thousand  years;  a  net  or  a  dredge  or  a  pot  or  an 
enclosure  is  now  what  it  was  then.  The  few  important 
modifications  or  improvements  in  gear  will  be  dealt 
with  presently. 

Nor  has  political  history  much  to  tell  us  about  the 
fisheries  that  would  be  of  general  interest.  Henry  I  of 
England  is  supposed  to  have  regarded  the  sturgeon  as  his 
exclusive  property ;  and  we  know  that  the  salmon  forms 
the  subject  of  a  clause  in  Magna  Charta.  It  is  generally 
believed  that  Biscayan  whalers  as  far  back  as  the  fourteenth 
century  fished  off  the  coast  of  what  is  now  called  New- 
foundland, and  even  off  Greenland  and  Spitzbergen. 
The  Portuguese  instituted  the  Grand  Banks  cod-fishery 
in  the  year  1500.  In  the  time  of  Charles  II,  the  British 
fisheries  had  so  declined  that  the  King,  in  1662,  offered 
£200  to  every  man  who  would  fit  out  a  "  brisse,"  or  Dutch 
herring-smack,  within  six  months  from  the  date  of  his 
proclamation. 

Fishing-grounds  have,  of  course,  formed  the  subject  of 
disputes  between  countries.  In  1839  a  treaty  was  signed 
between  England  and  France  to  settle  the  exact  boundaries 
of  the  oyster,  and  other,  grounds,  to  which  both  nations 
laid  claim ;  and  in  1854  a  similar  agreement  was  drawn 
up  between  our  Government  and  that  of  the  United  States, 
relating^ to  the  Canadian  fisheries. 

20 


INTRODUCTOEY 

It  is  only  within  comparatively  recent  years  that  any 
serious  step  has  been  taken  by  Government  to  fix  a  close 
season  for  fish.  At  the  present  time  our  fisheries  are 
under  the  control  of  local  committees  appointed  by  the 
Board  of  Trade. 


21 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  FISHERMAN'S   TOOLS 

Various  means  of  obtaining  fish — The  push-net— Rod  and  line— Bait 
— Means  of  getting  nearer  to  the  fish — The  raft — The  open  boat — 
The  smack — Tackle  used  in  boat-fishing— Long  lines  and  hand 
lines — Trawls— drift-nets,  seines,  moored  nets,  and  dredges— Pots 
— Another  important  item:  experience — The  fascination  of  the 
fisherman's  calling. 

BEFORE  dealing  with  special  fisheries   it  may  be 
well  to  give  a  brief  description  in  outline  of  the 
"  plant,"  so  to  speak,  which  constitutes  the  fisher- 
man's capital ;  the  means  most  generally  in  use  for  trans- 
porting the   fish   from  their  home   in  the  sea  or  river 
to  the  storehouse  or  the  market.     Less  commonly  used 
appliances  will  receive  separate  mention  later. 

Obviously  the  simplest  method  of  procuring  fish  is  by 
picking  them  off  the  beach  at  low  water.  It  is  in  this 
way  that  millions  of  cockles,  mussels,  and  periwinkles 
are  obtained  every  year;  in  many  parts  of  the  world 
oysters  are  obtained  in  the  same  way.  Such  creatures 
as  these  offer  no  resistance ;  make  no  attempt  to  escape 
their  captors ;  but  as  soon  as  we  come  to  the  more  lively 
fish  that  may  be  caught  at  low  tide  or  in  very  shallow 
water  —  shrimps,  for  instance  —  some  mechanical  con- 
trivance for  securing  them  at  once  becomes  necessary. 

22 


THE  FISHERMAN'S   TOOLS 

In  the  case  of  shrimps,  this  takes  the  form  of  the  push- 
net,  with  the  sight  of  which  we  are  all  familiar — a  simple 
net-bag,  kept  open  by  a  wooden  framework  to  which  a 
long  pole  is  fastened. 

The  ordinary  vertebrate  fish,  whether  of  the  sea  or  the 
river,  may  also  be  caught  from  the  land ;  but,  as  every- 
body knows,  he  is  too  timid  or  too  wary  to  allow  himself 
to  be  beguiled  by  other  than  artificial  means  more  or  less 
elaborate.  From  the  banks  of  rivers  and  lakes,  or  from 
jetties  and  pier-heads,  opportunities  for  large  catches  are 
rare ;  wherefore  it  is  better  to  try  patiently  to  secure  the  fish 
singly.  This  is  done  by  means  of  a  hook,  usually  barbed, 
fastened  to  a  line  long  enough  to  reach  that  part  of  the 
water — surface,  middle,  or  bottom — where  the  fish  angled 
for  is  likely  to  be  found.  In  fishing  at  any  appreciable 
distance  from  the  bank,  the  line  is  suspended  over  the 
water  from  the  tip  of  a  long  rod  which  scarcely  calls 
for  minute  description.  To  entice  the  fish,  some  bait, 
natural  or  artificial,  living  or  dead,  which  will  appeal 
to  his  curiosity  or  greed,  is  fixed  to  the  hook,  generally 
in  such  a  manner  as  partially  to  conceal  it.  This  bait 
varies  according  to  the  fish  sought  and  the  depth  at 
which  he  swims  :  broadly  speaking,  for  angling  at  or  near 
the  surface,  imitation  flies  are  used;  for  mid- water 
angling,  real  or  sham  fish ;  for  fishing  near  the  bottom, 
dough,  worms,  or  gentles  (the  larvae  obtained  from  fly- 
blown meat). 

To  these  methods  "land"  fishing  may  be  said  to  be 
mainly  confined ;  and  we  pass  on  to  the  consideration  of 
the  more  important  branch,  which  presses  into  its  service 

23 


THE  FISHERMAN'S   TOOLS 

not  only  nets  and  lines,  but  also  a  means  of  getting  at 
somewhat  closer  quarters  with  those  fish  which  cannot  be 
caught  very  near  to  the  shore — boats  and  ships. 

The  raft,  the  rudest  type  of  water  conveyance,  is  now, 
except  by  some  of  the  Japanese  and  Chinese  fishermen, 
used  only  by  savages  and  boys.  It  has  no  particular 
shape  or  construction,  and  often  no  means  of  steering. 
It  is  said  that  the  Phoenicians,  who  colonised  Corsica  and 
other  islands  near  Italy,  had  no  better  craft  in  which  to 
reach  their  destination ;  if  so,  the  journey  must  have 
been  a  work  of  time  and  patience. 

The  open  boat,  the  shape  of  which  varies  only  triflingly 
in  different  parts  of  the  world,  comes  next.  Being  of  such 
light  build  and  not  affording  much  storage  accommoda- 
tion, one  often  thinks  of  it  as  merely  an  accessory  to 
larger  fishing-boats ;  yet  on  most  coasts  it  is  to  be  found 
used  independently ;  and,  for  certain  kinds  of  work — line- 
fishing,  crabbing,  etc. — it  has  a  world-wide  popularity. 
It  draws  so  little  water  that  it  can  be  safely  used  where 
larger  boats  would  go  aground  or  strike  the  rocks ;  often 
its  very  lightness  is  its  strongest  recommendation ;  for, 
where  a  larger  vessel  may  have  to  struggle  with  the  wind 
or  get  becalmed  for  want  of  it,  the  open  boat,  propelled 
by  stout  oarsmen,  can  force  a  passage  with  more  or  less 
ease.  Fitted  with  a  "lug,"  i.e.  a  square  sail  fixed  to  a 
yard  that  hangs  obliquely  to  the  mast,  it  is  used  along 
the  east  coast  for  fishing  on  a  small  scale.  A  long  open 
boat  provided  with  two  lug-sails,  known  as  a  Scotch 
lugger,  is  still  a  great  favourite  with  the  North  Sea 
herring-fishers. 

24 


THE  FISHERMAN'S   TOOLS 

Next  comes  the  type  of  vessel  most  associated  in  our 
minds  with  the  sea-fisheries — the  decked  boat  or  smack. 
More  often  than  not  she  is  "cutter-rigged,11  having  a 
single  mast  with  main-sail,  top-sail,  jib-sail,  and  fore-sail. 
Yawls,  or  yawl-rigged  smacks,  only  differ  from  the  other 
kind  in  having  a  second  mast  aft — the  mizzen.  The 
smack  has  a  cabin  furnished  with  a  stove  and  three  or 
four  bunks,  while,  for  storage  purposes,  the  ample  spaces 
below  hatches  in  the  fore  part  of  the  ship  are  used. 
Larger  decked  boats — schooners,  brigs,  and  other  square- 
rigged  craft — are  employed  in  the  whaling  and  sponge 
trade,  and  also  by  the  American  cod-fishers ;  but  as  a  rule 
these  are  not  so  much  actual  fishing-boats  as  storehouses, 
lodging-houses  for  the  crew,  and  workshops.  They  are 
supplied  with  a  number  of  small  rowing-boats  which  do 
the  catching  work  and  unload  their  cargo  into  the  larger 
vessel  at  night. 

Now  as  to  the  gear  or  tackle  necessary  in  fishing  from 
boats.  It  may  be  classified  under  three  heads  :  lines,  nets, 
and  pots.  Lines  may  be  of  the  simpler  sort,  whether  with 
rod  and  winch,  as  used  in  tarpon-fishing,  or  only  intended 
to  be  held  in  the  hand  ("hand  lines"),  such  as  are  employed 
on  the  east  coast  for  cod,  and  on  the  south  for  whiting ;  or 
they  may  be  of  the  more  complicated  kind  known  as  "  long 
lines."  The  last  named  are  used  by  the  Scotch  and  North 
Country  fishermen  for  haddocks,  and  by  many  of  the 
American  cod-crews  ;  they  are  furnished  with  hooks  which 
vary  in  size  and  number,  and  which — like  hand  and  rod 
lines — are  baited  according  to  the  class  of  fish  sought ; 

25 


THE  FISHERMAN'S   TOOLS 

the  baits  most  commonly  in  use  being  mussels,  whelks, 
hermit-crabs,  and  squid  or  cuttle-fish.  Long  lines,  when 
joined  up  to  form  a  series,  often  stretch  for  more  than  a 
mile,  and  carry  as  many  as  four  or  five  thousand  hooks. 

Under  the  head  of  nets  are  included  trawls,  drift-nets, 
seines,  moored  nets,  and  dredges.  The  trawl  (or  trail) 
net,  the  most  important  and  elaborate  of  these,  is  a  huge 
meshed  bag  which  runs  down  to  a  point,  and  the  mouth 
of  which  is  fastened  to  a  pole  or  "  beam,"  ordinarily  about 
forty  feet  long.  At  either  end  of  the  beam,  and  at  right 
angles  to  it,  is  a  sort  of  triangular  broad  hoop  of  iron, 
measuring  about  three  feet  from  base  to  apex.  These 
hoops — "  trawl-heads  "  as  they  are  called — serve  the  three- 
fold purpose  of  sinking  the  net ;  of  supporting  the  beam, 
keeping  it  well  off  the  bottom ;  and  of  gliding  over  the 
sand  like  the  runners  of  a  sledge,  as  the  boat  moves.  The 
same  net,  on  a  somewhat  smaller  scale  and  with  finer 
mesh-work,  is  used  for  shrimping. 

A  drift-net  is  a  much  less  pretentious  arrangement,  being 
a  long  wall  ("  fleet ")  of  small  single  nets  fastened  together 
in  a  line.  Buoyed  above  with  corks  and  bladders  so  that 
it  may  hang  perpendicularly  in  the  water,  the  series  of 
nets  drifts  gently  along  at  the  tail  of  a  boat,  and  a  shoal 
of  fish  swimming  straight  at  it,  or  driven  towards  it  by  the 
current,  would  soon  be  inextricably  fixed  in  the  meshes. 

The  seine  (the  sageiie  of  the  old  Greek  fishermen)  is  a 
plain  net,  corked  above  and  leaded  below ;  the  top  level, 
but  the  bottom  slightly  curved ;  it  may  be  of  any  size, 
from  the  Cornish  pilchard-seine,  which  is  twelve  hundred 
feet  long  and  sixty  feet  deep,  to  the  little  net  worked  by 

26 


THE  FISHERMAN'S  TOOLS 

the  fisher-girls  in  Brittany,  or  the  ground-seine  commonly 
found  in  the  Channel  sprat-fishing.  In  a  general  way  the 
seine  is  shot  from  a  rowing-boat,  and  is  dragged  ashore  in 
a  semicircle  by  ropes  fastened  to  its  two  ends.  Moored 
nets  are  those,  no  matter  of  what  shape,  which  are  fixed  in 
certain  spots  by  means  of  anchors.  They  may  be  seen  in 
great  numbers  across  the  mouths  of  Scotch,  French,  and 
Scandinavian  rivers,  where  the  tide,  whether  ebbing  or 
flowing,  soon  drives  the  fish  against  them.  The  dredge, 
used  principally  for  oysters,  is  a  very  small  bag-like  net, 
the  under  part  of  which  is  composed  of  wire  rings  and 
the  upper  of  small  string  meshes.  It  is  supported  by  a 
triangular  heavy  iron  frame,  to  which  a  stout  rope  long 
enough  to  "reach  to  the  bottom  is  attached.  The  dredge 
is  thrown  overboard,  allowed  to  scrape  along  the  sand  for 
a  few  minutes,  hauled  up,  emptied,  and  thrown  over  again. 

The  third  class  of  contrivance,  pots,  are  used  for  the 
snaring  of  crabs,  lobsters,  etc.  They  are  made  of  wicker, 
or  of  network  stretched  on  an  iron  frame  ;  are  baited  with 
fish  or  meat,  and  are  sunk  singly  or  in  rows  by  means  of 
heavy  stones,  their  position  being  marked  by  cork  buoys. 

To  this  list  of  fishermen's  requisites  must  be  added 
another  item — experience.  Every  amateur  angler,  whether 
it  be  the  small  boy  who  fishes  for  minnows  with  cotton 
and  a  bent  pin,  or  the  stalwart  sportsman  who  whips  the 
Scandinavian  streams  for  salmon,  is  aware  that,  without  a 
knowledge  both  of  the  habits  and  whereabouts  of  his  fish, 
and  also  of  the  proper  manipulation  of  his  tackle,  he  will 
never  catch  anything  except  by  sheer  chance.  And  such 
knowledge,  important  as  it  is,  constitutes  only  a  portion 

27 


THE   FISHERMAN'S   TOOLS 

of  what  is  essential  to  the  professional  fishermen  of  civil- 
ised countries. 

Before  the  sea-fisher  is  at  liberty  to  bestow  many 
thoughts  upon  either  fish  or  tackle,  he  must  learn  to  be  a 
sailor ;  must  understand  the  mystery  of  tides  and  currents 
and  winds ;  be  well  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  the 
ground  on  which  he  has  to  work ;  and  be  prepared  to 
perform  every  conceivable  duty  on  board,  from  swabbing 
the  deck  to  steering  the  smack  through  a  squall  or  a  fog. 
Even  then  his  education  is  by  no  means  complete.  Apart 
from  the  thousand  and  one  minor  repairs  to  boat  and 
tackle  for  which  he  is  responsible,  apart  even  from  the 
many  tricks  of  the  trade  that  he  must  know  before  he  can 
secure  and  land  his  catch,  almost  every  class  of  fisherman 
has  special  duties  to  perform  in  connection  with  the  fish 
after  they  are  caught :  cleaning,  sorting,  packing,  drying, 
salting — all  of  it  work,  that  sounds  and  looks  far  easier 
than  it  is. 

From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  the  fisherman's  life  is  not 
a  lazy  one ;  neither  is  it  a  very  safe  one,  especially  where 
open-boat  fishing  is  concerned.  It  is,  moreover,  pre- 
carious in  the  extreme ;  too  much  or  too  little  wind  may 
keep  the  boats  ashore  for  days  at  a  time ;  an  overstocked 
market  may  render  a  whole  day's  catch  valueless,  except 
as  manure ;  a  sea-monster  or  passing  ship  may  ruin  fifty 
pounds'  worth  of  gear  in  fifty  seconds. 

But  there  is  a  brighter  side  to  the  picture.  There  are 
strokes  of  luck  to  be  considered — extraordinary  catches, 
at  a  time  when  prices  are  high — a  few  of  which  will  make 
the  fisherman  comparatively  wealthy.  Of  the  healthiness 

28 


THE  FISHERMAN'S  TOOLS 

of  the  occupation  there  can  be  no  two  opinions ;  some  of 
the  finest  imaginable  specimens  of  manhood  can  easily  be 
picked  from  among  British,  Scandinavian,  or  American 
fishermen  ;  men  of  seventy  years  of  age  may  be  seen  work- 
ing with  the  speed  and  energy  of  lads  of  twenty. 

There  is  a  romance  too,  a  fascination,  about  the  call- 
ing that  is  seldom  to  be  found  in  any  other.  The  hard 
labour,  the  ever-present  danger,  and  the  decidedly  un- 
romantic  smell  of  fish  or  tar  or  oil  are,  in  the  fisher's 
estimation,  amply  outweighed  by  the  sense  of  freedom 
that  his  daily  contact  with  the  sea  produces.  The  labour 
and  the  smells  he  takes  for  granted  ;  the  danger  he  seldom 
troubles  about — to  think  about  it  is  often  to  incur  it. 
He  is  a  sort  of  cheerful  fatalist ;  if  he  is  marked  for 
drowning,  drown  he  must,  some  day  or  another. 

He  would  not,  in  one  case  out  of  a  hundred,  change  his 
trade  for  any  other ;  all  other  methods  of  life  are  to  him 
cramping  and  enervating,  and  lacking  in  liberty.  There 
is  an  old  Kent-coast  fisherman  who  worked  regularly  on 
board  his  smack,  in  foul  weather  and  fair,  till  he  was 
eighty  years  old.  Then  he  at  length  yielded  to  the  per- 
suasions of  a  wealthy  grandson,  who  took  him  to  London, 
gave  him  rooms  in  his  own  house,  and  supplied  him  with 
all  manner  of  luxuries.  The  dear  old  fellow  tried  town 
life  and  idleness  for  nearly  a  year;  then  one  day  he 
suddenly  disappeared — he  had  gone  back  quietly  to  the 
work  of  his  boyhood.  He  is  now  eighty-three,  and  prides 
himself  on  doing  as  good  a  day's  fishing  as  the  rest  of  his 
crew.  Had  he  remained  in  London  he  would  probably 
have  been  dead  long  ago. 

29 


CHAPTER   III 
TRAWLING 

"Off"  with  the  boats— The  start— The  fisherman's  attitude  towards 
strangers— An  East  Coast  trawler — The  net — The  fisherman  at  sea 
— Shooting  the  trawl— Special  ''catches" — The  net  hauled  up — 
Where  the  hard  work  comes  in — The  steam  carrier — What  is  done 
with  the  catch — Steam-trawling — Little  private  ventures. 

TO  sea -loving  people  there  is  a  peculiar  charm 
attaching  to  the  departure,  whether  by  day  or  by 
night,  of  a  fishing-fleet.  When  the  boats  go  off 
by  daylight  there  is  the  pleasing  bustle  and  scurry 
attendant  on  the  putting  out  to  sea  of  two  or  three 
hundred  men,  all  of  them  robust,  healthy,  and  light- 
hearted.  There  is  the  vivid,  continually  changing 
panorama,  made  up  of  picturesque  costumes,  gaily 
painted  boats  which  are  being  dragged  down  the  shingle 
or  tossed  up  and  down  on  the  waves  in  their  effort  to 
reach  the  smacks  lying  at  moorings ;  the  steady  rise  of 
the  white  or  brown  main-sail  as  it  is  hauled  up  by  a 
couple  of  men ;  finishing  with  the  graceful  movement  of 
the  vessel  herself  as  she  slips  her  cable  and  sets  off  on  her 
little  voyage. 

At  night  the  charm  is  different.  It  is  there  all  the 
same ;  to  the  taste  of  many  people  it  is  even  intensified. 
Darkness  has  taken  the  place  of  daylight,  and  it  remains 

30 


TRAWLING 

for  the  ear  to  be  entertained  rather  than  the  eye.  The 
crunch  of  boat-keels  over  the  pebbly  beach,  the  hollow 
shouts  of  the  men,  the  plash  and  rumble  of  the  oars — 
noises  that,  in  the  daytime,  pass  unnoticed  because  they 
are  drowned  by  others  from  the  land — are  now  not  only 
heard,  but  almost  felt.  The  atmosphere  of  gaiety  that  is 
a  feature  of  a  daylight  departure  is  wanting  now,  for  the 
men  have  been  called  out  of  snug  beds  to  catch  the  tide 
that  must  be  taken,  if  not  "  at  the  flood,"  at  least  soon 
after  the  ebb  has  begun ;  some  are  sulky,  others  half 
asleep,  and  the  rest  are  silent  because  even  the  most 
civil  remark  might  beget  a  surly  answer  or  be  ignored 
altogether. 

As  each  boat  reaches  the  water's  edge  there  is  a 
splashing  sound ;  the  big,  sea-booted  men  are  scrambling 
into  their  places.  Then  comes  the  rhythmical  knock- 
knock  of  the  oars  against  the  rowlocks  as  the  boat 
hurries  away  into  the  gloom,  her  passage  marked  by  the 
phosphorescent  line  left  as  she  passes  through  the  water, 
and  by  the  pale  gold  drops  that  fall  from  the  oar-blades. 
Presently  the  watcher  on  the  shore  hears  a  bump  and  a 
grating  noise;  the  little  boat  has  got  alongside  the  smack; 
the  men  are  clambering  on  board ;  the  boat  is  made  fast 
astern  of  the  larger  vessel,  and  work  is  about  to  begin. 
How  the  crew  have  distinguished  their  particular  smack 
from  the  fifty,  hundred,  or  two  hundred  lying  at  anchor 
is,  to  the  landsman,  a  profound  mystery;  yet  there  has 
not  been  an  instant  of  hesitation  in  the  fishermen's  minds ; 
they  have  threaded  their  way  as  easily  and  naturally 
among  the  large  fleet  as  a  London  policeman  would  cross 


TRAWLING 

the  Strand,  and  have  pulled  unerringly  up  to  their  own 
ship. 

Now  there  are  fresh  noises  that  again  we  should  prob- 
ably be  unconscious  of  by  day :  the  spasmodic  rattle  of 
the  rings  on  the  mast,  as  the  gaff  and  main-sail  are  hauled 
into  position  ;  or  the  more  rapid  and  regular  click-click  of 
the  chain-cable  as  it  is  allowed  to  run  through  the  hawse- 
hole  or  over  the  bow.  The  fore-sail  and  jib-sail  are  set ; 
perhaps  the  top-sail  as  well,  if  wind  be  scarce;  and  the 
smack  at  last  separates  herself  from  the  others  which  are 
in  various  stages  of  readiness,  and,  in  ghostly  fashion, 
slips  away  into  the  darkness. 

This  gradual  disappearance  of  boat  after  boat — or  of 
the  whole  fleet  together — rather  piques  the  watcher's 
curiosity.  The  fisher  crews  are  going  away  for  a  day  or 
two ;  perhaps  a  week  ;  most  likely  a  couple  of  months  or 
more,  if  they  are  trawlers.  What  is  going  to  happen 
during  all  that  time  ?  The  inquisitive  one  must  go  and 
see  for  himself,  for  he  can,  in  that  way,  learn  more  in  a 
few  hours  than  six  months1  hearsay  would  teach  him.  If 
he  is  known  to  the  men,  a  good  sailor,  and  is  prepared  to 
"  rough  it,"  nothing  is  easier ;  if  he  knows  enough  about 
seamanship  to  be  able  to  bear  a  hand  on  board  (without 
going  out  of  his  way  to  try  to  teach  the  skipper  how  to 
manage  his  own  boat)  he  may  even  be  received  with  open 
arms.  I  say  "  if  he  is  known  to  the  men."  Fishermen 
vary  in  their  attitude  towards  landsmen.  A  Yankee  cod- 
skipper  who  is  short  of  a  hand  would  not  hesitate  to 
engage  even  a  tram-conductor  or  a  hairdresser;  and 
would  argue  that,  by  the  time  the  ground  was  reached, 

32 


TRAWLING 

the  new  man  would  be  either  competent  or  dead.  An 
Irish  crew  would  be  "  hail-fellow  "  with  any  man  who  did 
not  look  like  being  sea-sick.  The  Scotch,  North  Country, 
and  East  Coast  fishermen  will  take  the  stranger  aboard  if 
they  are  once  persuaded  that  he  is  prepared  to  learn  a 
very  great  deal  from  them.  They  do  not  seek  to  magnify 
the  danger ;  rather  the  reverse,  in  fact ;  but  they  do  like 
the  landsman  to  feel  that  he  is  being  initiated  into  a 
mystery  that  is  far  too  deep  for  his  intellect  to  grasp  all 
in  a  hurry. 

A  cheery  word  or  two,  and  a  readiness  to  hand  round 
one's  tobacco,  or  possibly  a  hint  as  to  a  trifling  donation 
at  the  end  of  the  day,  are  the  only  passports  necessary 
to  make  one  shipmates  with  the  South  Country  fisherman, 
save  and  except  him  of  certain  parts  of  Devonshire.  To 
the  Clovelly  or  Brixham  fisherman,  the  man  from  the 
next  village  is  a  stranger  and  a  foreigner;  and,  till 
recently,  it  were  better  for  that  man  that  he  should  keep 
out  of  the  way.  Even  to-day,  unless  there  is  very  strong 
influence  at  work,  the  visitor  from  a  distance  would  stand 
quite  as  much  chance  of  being  invited  aboard  the  royal 
yacht  as  of  being  allowed  to  sail  with  a  Brixham  trawler. 

Let  the  reader  imagine  himself,  then,  on  board  one 
of  the  Lowestoft  or  Yarmouth  or  Hull  boats.  She  is 
either  cutter-  or  yawl-rigged ;  probably  the  latter,  as 
being  safer  in  the  heavy  winter  seas  off  the  Dogger  Bank. 
Instead  of  making  sail  from  her  moorings,  she  has  most 
likely  been  towed  out  to  sea,  with  others,  by  a  steam-tug. 

As  the  sun  shows  signs  of  rising,  the  stranger  has  an 
opportunity  of  looking  about  him  and  taking  in  his  new 
c  33 


TRAWLING 

quarters.  Along  the  port  (or  left-hand)  side  of  the  boat 
is  the  trawl-net — the  heavy,  iron-runnered  beam  lying 
along  the  deck ;  the  "  cod,"  or  pointed  bottom  of  the 
net,  looped  up  to  the  rigging.  On  examination  it  is 
seen  that  one  side  of  the  net's  mouth  is  fastened,  all  the 
way  down,  to  the  beam  and  the  trawl-heads ;  the  other 
is  formed  by  an  enormously  thick  rope — the  "  foot-rope  " 
— much  longer  than  the  beam  itself,  to  which  the  first 
row  of  meshes  on  that  side  is  attached.  Close  by  are 
huge  coils  of  rope  which  look  as  though  they  too  ought 
to  belong  to  the  trawl. 

Swish !  A  bucket  of  water  eddies  round  your  ankles, 
and  you  speedily  resolve  to  postpone  your  investigations 
till  a  more  seasonable  hour,  as  an  energetic  fisher-lad 
diligently  scrubs  at  the  deck  with  his  short-handled  broom. 
Not  that  it  wants  scrubbing ;  the  only  marks  on  it  are 
a  few  smuts  from  the  chimney  of  the  cabin,  where  some 
one  is  lighting  a  fire  to  boil  the  breakfast  kettle  ;  but  the 
seaman  is  the  cleanest  soul  on  earth,  and  washes  his  decks 
from  habit,  and  his  hands  twenty  times  to  any  other 
working  man's  once. 

Somebody  calls  out  that  the  kettle  boils,  and  the 
hitherto  silent  fishermen  show  signs  of  growing  talkative. 
In  warm  weather,  or  at  busy  times,  they  take  their  meal 
on  deck ;  at  other  times  in  the  cabin,  going  down  by 
twos  and  threes,  or  occasionally — with  the  exception  of 
the  man  at  the  helm — en  masse.  The  tea  has  been  made 
in  the  kettle,  and  is  now  poured  into  iron  mugs  or 
gallipots,  while  a  condensed-milk  tin  is  solemnly  scrubbed 
out  to  serve  as  a  drinking- vessel  for  that  courteous  mem- 

34 


TRAWLING 

ber  of  the  crew  who  has  placed  his  own  mug  at  the 
guest's  disposal. 

Fish  might  be  the  greatest  rarity  at  sea,  if  one  judged 
from  the  fact  that  at  least  three  of  the  men  have  brought 
kippers  or  red  herrings  to  toast  for  their  breakfast. 

The  cabin  of  one  of  these  smacks  is  not  the  perfection 
of  comfort ;  in  many  of  them  a  man  of  medium  height 
cannot  even  stand  upright ;  the  floor  is  wet,  sometimes 
sloppy,  and  the  intense  heat  makes  every  one  anxious  to 
escape  to  the  fresh  air  as  soon  as  possible.  Coming  up  on 
deck  again,  you  find  that  it  is  broad  daylight ;  the  land 
has  disappeared,  or  else  stands  out  only  in  dark  outline ; 
perhaps  you  have  broken  away  from  the  main  fleet  and 
there  is  not  a  boat  within  hail ;  the  wind  is  fresh,  the 
smack  slips  swiftly  and  delicately  over  the  waves,  and 
you  begin  to  understand  why  the  fisherman  looks  with 
contempt  on  all  occupations  except  his  own. 

At  length  signs  of  attention  to  business  reappear ; 
pipes  are  stowed  away ;  the  after-breakfast  chatter  dies 
down ;  the  taciturn  old  fellow  at  the  helm  takes  a  fresh 
quid  of  tobacco  and  mutters  some  order  about  easing  the 
fore-sail  or  lowering  the  top-sail ;  the  younger  men 
abandon  their  speculations  as  to  whether  the  Skylark 
or  the  John  and  Mary  or  the  Minnie  Brown  ships 
just  as  much  water  as  she  did  before  she  went  for  repairs, 
and  give  themselves  up  to  a  close  inspection  of  the  gear. 
A  few  minutes,  or  hours — as  the  case  may  be — pass ;  then 
the  main-sail  is  pulled  round  to  leeward,  other  sails  are 
lowered  or  eased,  and  you  realise  that  at  last  the  men  are 
going  to  fish. 

35 


TRAWLING 

The  smack  is  in  thirty,  perhaps  forty,  fathoms  of  water, 
and  down  at  or  near  the  bottom  are  soles  and  plaice, 
halibut  arid  brill,  with,  perhaps,  a  score  of  other  kinds  of 
fish :  turbot,  lemon- soles,  skate,  cod,  haddock,  whiting — 
to  say  nothing  of  the  less-known  megrims,  witches,  pouting, 
coal-fish,  and  pollack — all  waiting  to  swim  into,  or  be 
scooped  up  by,  the  great  trawl-net.  The  size  of  this  net 
naturally  varies  according  to  the  size  of  the  vessel  carry- 
ing it ;  the  beam  is  any  length  from  five-and-thirty  to 
fifty  feet ;  the  meshes  increase  in  size  towards  the  mouth, 
being  about  an  inch  and  a  half  square  at  the  bottom,  and 
about  four  inches  at  the  top. 

Now  comes  the  moment  for  throwing  it  overboard  (a 
fisherman  always  speaks  of  "shooting"  the  net).  To 
each  trawl-head  or  runner  a  long  rope — the  "  bridle " — 
is  made  fast,  and  a  third  rope  is  shackled  to  the 
bridle-ends. 

"  All  right !    Let  go  ! "  growls  the  skipper. 

The  heavy  beam  has  disappeared  ;  trawling  has  begun  ; 
and,  for  so  many  days,  weeks,  or  months,  the  crew  has 
settled  down  to  a  seemingly  monotonous  and  endless  task. 
The  boat  has  slackened  her  speed ;  often  she  appears  to 
make  no  progress  at  all.  If  the  weather  is  not  too 
rough  she  is  left  to  go  whither  she  will,  for,  with  the 
ponderous  trawl  clogging  her  like  a  sea-anchor,  she  cannot 
run  far  away.  There  she  lies,  tossed  lightly  about  by 
wave  and  breeze  ;  patiently  dragging  her  net  from  left  or 
right,  according  to  the  tide  and  wind.  What  will  the  first 
haul  be  like  ? 

At  present  our  skipper  is  only  feeling  his  way ;  he 

36 


TRAWLING 

wants  to  find  smooth  ground,  for  only  there  can  the  trawl 
work  satisfactorily. 

And  what  is  going  on  all  that  distance  below  our  feet  ? 
We  talk  airily  about  so  many  fathoms,  without  perhaps 
readily  grasping  what  such  a  depth  means.  Imagine  a 
distance  nearly  four  times  the  length  of  a  cricket-pitch ; 
that  is  how  deep  down  our  net  is  lying.  The  beam,  held 
three  or  four  feet  off  the  ground  by  its  two  runners,  is 
riding  slowly  and  easily  along ;  the  foot -rope  is  scraping 
over  the  bottom,  disturbing  and  bewildering  the  fish, 
which  are  scooped  up  by  it  before  they  know  where  they 
are ;  and,  finding  that  they  cannot  escape  above,  they 
never  seem  to  dream  of  trying  to  get  out  the  way  they 
came  in. 

Although  it  is  an  everyday  incident  in  their  lives — or, 
rather,  an  incident  which  happens  a  great  many  times 
every  day  and  night  of  their  life  at  sea — the  trawlers 
always  seem  to  get  up  a  semi-enthusiasm,  a  few  moments 
of  the  breathless  excitement  of  expectation,  when  the 
time  comes  for  hauling  in.  The  older  hands  no  doubt 
affect  a  sort  of  indifference,  but  the  little  pleasurable 
thrill — the  gambler's  "eye  to  the  off-chance " — is  there 
for  those  who  can  see  it.  And  no  wonder;  for  buried 
treasure  has  been  brought  up  on  various  occasions.  Did 
not  some  Margate  fishermen  once  pull  up  a  metal  pot 
crammed  full  of  golden  guineas  ?  Moreover,  the  memory 
of  another,  and  perhaps  more  likely,  treasure  is  still 
green  in  the  minds  of  the  North  Sea  trawlers.  There  are 
men  still  living  who  once  saw  a  trawl-net  pulled  up  near 
the  Dogger  packed  as  full  as  it  could  be  with  one  of  the 

37 


TRAWLING 

most  expensive  fish  on  the  market — soles.  The  net  had 
somehow  stumbled  across  a  hollow,  where  a  complete 
colony  of  these  creatures  had  taken  up  its  abode ;  and,  in 
a  short  time,  seven  tons  of  them  were  taken.  The  value 
of  such  a  catch  would  be  at  least  £400.  I  have  heard  this 
tale  from  fishermen  in  various  quarters,  and  Mr.  James 
Runciman,  writing  in  1886,  speaks  of  it  as  an  established 
fact,  adding  that  the  haul  was  described  to  him  by  an 
actual  member  of  the  fortunate  crew. 

The  methods  of  raising  the  net  differ.  Our  East  Coast 
boat  will,  in  all  probability,  have  a  kind  of  patent  capstan, 
worked  by  steam  power,  which  hoists  the  trawl  amid- 
ships ;  the  southern  boats,  however,  like  the  shrimpers, 
have  a  large  hand-winch  or  windlass  which  draws  up  the 
fore-bridle  over  the  bows,  while  the  after-bridle  is  pulled 
up  by  hand,  or  wound  round  a  smaller  winch  astern. 
These  South  Coast  trawlers,  by  the  way,  do  not  usually 
fish  in  fleets  as  the  others  do. 

At  last  the  beam  shows  itself  above  water,  and  strong 
hands  lift  it  over  the  bulwarks.  But  how  on  earth,  asks 
the  neophyte,  can  those  ropes  bear  the  strain  of  such  a 
weight  ?  More,  how  can  those  paltry-looking  bits  of 
string,  that  form  the  meshes,  hold  together  when  weighed 
down  by  a  burthen  so  tremendous  ?  Such  a  question 
belongs  to  the  realm  of  mechanics ;  the  fact  remains  that 
not  one  rope  in  ten  thousand  does  break,  and  it  is  the 
exception  rather  than  the  rule  for  a  mesh  to  give  way. 

Now  only  the  net  lies  in  the  water,  and,  by  means  of 
stout  ropes,  this  is  hoisted  up  and  its  contents  shot  out 
on  to  a  space  temporarily  boarded  off  on  deck. 

38 


TRAWLING 

The  men  cast  a  swift,  appraising  eye  over  the  catch — 
the  more  experienced  can  tell,  within  a  very  little,  what 
it  is  worth  to  them — then  lower  the  trawl  again ;  unless 
the  catch  is  entirely  unsatisfactory,  in  which  case  they 
may  make  sail  a  little  farther  away  before  doing  so. 

"  Is  that  all  ?  "  asks  the  landsman.  "  Then  where  does 
the  hard  work  come  in  ? " 

The  hard  work  is  only  beginning.  All  those  hundreds 
or  thousands  of  fish  that  lie  feebly  gasping  there,  inter- 
spersed with  shrimps,  crabs,  shells,  and  seaweed,  have  to 
be  cleaned,  sorted  out,  and  packed  in  boxes  ready  for  the 
carrier ;  cramping,  back-breaking  work  it  is,  too ;  and,  by 
the  time  it  is  done,  the  trawl  is  probably  ready  to  be 
pulled  up  again.  Up  it  comes ;  then  the  same  moment 
of  expectancy;  the  same  straining  and  dragging;  the 
same  groping  and  stooping  and  sorting — then  another 
net-full  ready  to  be  hoisted  in.  Night  comes  on,  and  the 
men  "  turn  in "  one  or  two  at  a  time,  according  to  the 
number  of  the  crew. 

Till  lately  (in  many  instances  the  custom  still  exists), 
in  winter,  the  boats  going  off  for  a  long  spell  carried 
ice  with  them  and  stored  the  fish  in  it,  bringing  back  the 
whole  cargo  themselves  at  the  end  of  the  trip.  This  is 
most  largely  done  in  the  case  of  plaice,  soles,  and  halibut. 
But  more  commonly  now,  whether  in  winter  or  summer, 
whether  fishing  off  the  Dogger  or  the  Danish  and  Dutch 
Banks,  steam  carriers  go  out  from  Yarmouth  or  Grimsby 
or  Hull  almost  daily,  and  their  visit  makes  a  break  in  the 
monotony  to  which  every  one  looks  forward. 

The  carrier  is  a  boat  of  powerful  build,  very  high  in 

39 


TRAWLING 

the  bows,  and  as  low  in  the  stern  as  a  Thames  barge.  As 
soon  as  she  comes  in  sight  all  is  bustle  and  excitement 
on  board  the  trawlers.  The  little  boat  that  has  been 
trailing  behind  each  smack  is  hauled  alongside ;  one  or 
two  men  get  in,  and  the  boxes  are  handed  over  to  them. 
In  the  calmest  weather  there  is  a  certain  amount  of 
risk  attaching  to  this  work  of  transporting  the  fish  to  the 
carrier.  Every  one  knows  what  the  swell  from  a  good- 
sized  steamer  is ;  a  small  boat  getting  into  its  wash 
must  expect  a  good  deal  of  buffeting.  But  when  the  sea 
is  really  rough — and  the  German  Ocean  can  afford  as  fair 
a  sample  of  roughness  as  most — it  seems  impossible  that 
these  little  dinghies  can  live  i#  it.  Yet  an  accident  rarely 
happens.  Very  patiently  the  tiny  craft  makes  her  way  to 
the  side  of  the  carrier,  and  before  the  spectator  has  had 
time  to  make  up  his  mind  whether  or  no  she  will  be 
smashed  to  splinters  against  the  larger  vessel,  she  is  on 
her  way  back  again  with  a  cargo  of  empty  cases,  perhaps 
a  few  necessaries  in  the  way  of  food  or  fresh  water,  and, 
by  chance,  a  letter  or  a  couple  of  newspapers. 

Nowadays  carriers  and  tugs,  having  a  shrewd  eye  to 
business,  have  a  trawl-net  on  board ;  and,  in  their  spare 
time,  the  crews  do  a  little  fishing  on  their  own  account. 
This  is  especially  the  case  with  the  Falmouth  and  Cardiff 
tugs. 

The  Scotch,  less  conservative  than  the  South  Britons, 
have  almost  abandoned  sailing-vessels  for  trawling ;  and, 
except  in  the  case  of  small  private  ventures,  it  is  safe  to 
say  that  at  Leith,  Aberdeen,  and  other  Scotch  ports,  the 
trawling  is  all  done  by  screw-steamers.  This,  of  course, 

40 


TRAWLING 

means  larger  and  heavier  tackle,  a  larger  crew  (including 
deck-hands,  whose  work  is  to  see  to  the  cleaning  and 
storing  of  the  fish,  and  to  do  odd  jobs  aboard),  and  larger 
catches.  Boats  of  this  description  are  provided  not  only 
with  patent  capstans,  but  also  with  blocks  and  ropes  for 
hoisting  the  bag  of  the  trawl  on  board. 

The  Irish  fleets  still  cleave  to  the  older  sailing-boat 
method;  in  1900  Dublin  alone  possessed  a  fleet  of  over 
fifty  cutter-rigged  smacks  averaging  forty  tons. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  trawling  is  confined  to 
Leith,  Grimsby,  Ramsgate,  Brixham,  and  a  few  such 
important  centres.  In  almost  every  fishing-town  there 
are  men  who,  in  spring  and  summer,  go  out  short 
distances  for  a  day  or  two  at  a  time  with  a  view  to 
supplying  just  the  local  market.  If  an  owner  does  not 
happen  to  possess  trawling-gear  he  can  soon  hire  it ;  at  a 
pinch  he  can  use  his  shrimp-net,  which  is  practically  the 
same  thing. 

Private  ventures  such  as  this  are  often  exceedingly 
lucrative,  for  the  expenses  and  wear  and  tear  are  inappreci- 
able as  compared  with  those  of  a  regular  trawler ;  and 
each  man  frequently  finds  that  he  has  earned  as  much  in 
those  few  hours  or  days  as  he  could  make  at  other  fishing 
in  as  many  weeks. 


CHAPTER  IV 

SHRIMPING,  MUSSELLING,  AND 
LINE-FISHING 

Shrimps — The  push-net — On  board  a  Dutch  visschers-boot — Dutch 
fishermen — Preparations  for  boiling — Hauling  up  the  shrimp-net — 
Emptying — The  catch — Sorting — 'Ware  crabs  ! — And  fox-fish — 
Boiling — Hot  shrimps — Danger  of  the  trade — Prawns  and  prawn- 
catching — Mussels — What  becomes  of  them  all — Transplanting — 
Mussels  by  the  barge-load  —  Line-fishing  —  Hand  lines  —  Long 
lines— Ready-baited  hooks — Paying  out  the  lines—"  Bending-on  " 
—Two  or  three  miles  of  lines— Bringing  in  the  catch— Longer 
lines—"  Bulters." 

SHRIMPS  are  never  out  of  season ;  and  prawns  only 
during  the  last  two  months  of  the  year.     Prices 
vary  simply  because   the  fish   are   so   much  more 
plentiful  at  one  time  than  another. 

The  push-net,  to  be  seen  at  all  seaside  places  in  the 
summer  months,  is  apt  to  mislead  us  into  the  belief  that 
the  shrimp  is  a  shallow-water  fish,  which  he  is  not.  In 
shallows  he  is  an  accident ;  in  deep  water  a  feature.  The 
men  whom  you  see  "ploughing  the  sand"  with  a  hand 
net  at  low  water  are  either  out  of  work  or  making  over- 
time, and  we  cannot  allow  their  claim  to  the  dignified 
title  of  "  shrimper.""  Ask  the  Dutchmen  or  the  Kent  and 
Essex  fishermen  what  they  understand  by  shrimping. 
Push-netting,  they  will  tell  you,  is  children's  amusement ; 

42 


SHRIMPING   AND   LINE-FISHING 

some  will  even  sarcastically  affect  never  to  have  heard 
of  it. 

Let  us  have  a  day  off  with  a  Dutch  visschers-boot  (which 
we  may  manage  to  do  if  our  command  of  German,  Dutch, 
or  Flemish  be  of  such  a  nature  as  to  persuade  the  crew 
that  we  are  anything  but  British),  and  we  shall  have  a 
chance  of  seeing  why  shrimpers  demand  to  be  classed  with 
trawlers  and  other  workers  at  dangerous  trades. 

Those  who  laugh  at  the  Dutch  fishermen  have  not  seen 
them  at  their  work  (except  English  fishermen ;  and  these 
justify  the  proverb  that  two  of  a  trade  seldom  agree). 
They  may  let  their  hair  grow  rather  long;  they  may 
wear  wooden  shoes — nowadays  they  far  more  often  invest 
in  English-made  sea-boots;  they  may  require  a  very 
great  deal  of  alcohol  to  enable  them  to  face  a  gale ;  but 
their  clever  seamanship,  their  industry,  and,  when  it 
comes  to  the  pinch,  their  cool  courage,  demand  that  we 
shall  speak  of  them  with  all  respect.  It  is  to  these  men 
that  the  London  market  is  indebted  for  its  winter  supply 
of  shrimps ;  in  fact,  from  December  to  June,  by  far  the 
greater  quantity  comes  from  Holland,  the  fish  being 
vastly  inferior  to  those  taken  from  the  Thames  estuary. 

Each  smack,  with  an  average  crew  of  four,  carries  a  net 
shorter  than  a  trawl  and  of  much  smaller  mesh,  but  not 
otherwise  differing;  and  the  men  work  almost  a  whole 
tide,  going  off  with  the  ebb  and  not  returning  till  nearly 
flood.  Such  boats  will  go  from  fifteen  to  thirty  miles 
away,  working  every  minute  of  daylight.  The  men 
know  well  enough,  within  a  little,  where  they  will  find 
their  fish,  and,  with  a  favourable  wind,  will  soon  be 

43 


SHRIMPING,   MUSSELLING 

on  the  spot.  Most  boats  carry  a  dredge,  attached  to 
a  very  long  warp,  which,  as  soon  as  they  have  shortened 
sail,  they  throw  over  once  or  twice  to  test  the  bottom. 
If  the  result  of  the  trial  be  satisfactory,  the  net  is  lowered 
as  described  in  Chapter  III,  and  in  the  same  manner  is 
towed  slowly  along  the  sand. 

As  soon  as  the  net  has  been  shot,  preparations  are 
made  for  the  shrimp-boiling,  which  almost  invariably  is 
done  on  board.  When  the  fore-hatch  is  taken  up  we  see, 
below,  an  ordinary  washing-copper  with  a  good-sized 
grate  under  it,  and,  in  it,  the  water  and  the  waste 
shrimps  from  yesterday's  boiling.  The  water  is  baled 
out  and  flung  overboard,  but  not  the  shrimps.  It  may 
be  superstition  or  it  may  be  scientific  fact,  but  all 
shrimpers  are  of  opinion  that  boiled  shrimps  are  poison- 
ous to  their  own  kind,  and  that  the  living  fish  have  no 
instinct  to  warn  them  of  that  fact.  Therefore  any  that 
are  left  over  (the  "cleanings11)  are  made  into  a  small 
parcel  to  be  thrown  away  when  the  men  come  ashore. 

The  copper  being  filled  with  sea-water  to  which  several 
generous  handfuls  of  salt  have  been  added,  the  fire  is  lit, 
and,  by  the  time  the  men  are  ready  for  it,  the  copper  will 
be  boiling.  Next  the  "zeef11  (anglice,  "strainer")  is 
handed  out  and  laid  slanting  from  the  bulwarks  to  the 
deck,  to  leeward ;  it  is  an  oblong  wooden  frame  about 
six  feet  by  three,  with  a  wire  bottom,  just  such  as  brick- 
layers1 labourers  use  for  screening  sand. 

The  hauling  up  of  a  shrimp-net  is  a  less  arduous  un- 
dertaking than  the  raising  of  a  trawl,  though  it  is  quite 
heavy  enough  to  keep  four  men  well  employed  for  several 

44 


AND   LINE-FISHING 

minutes.  In  the  bows  is  a  powerful  windlass  to  which 
the  fore-bridle,  or  else  a  tow-line  connected  with  the  two 
bridles,  is  fixed,  and  then  the  winding  up  begins — hard 
work  even  for  a  couple  of  strong  men  accustomed  to  such 
labour.  If  the  net  is  being  pulled  up  by  the  fore-bridle 
only,  two  other  men  are  working  in  the  stern,  hauling  in 
the  aft-bridle ;  if  by  a  tow-line,  they  stand  by  to  haul  on 
the  after-bridle  as  soon  as  it  comes  in  sight.  At  last  the 
beam  comes  up,  is  hoisted  in,  and  the  full  net  hangs  over 
the  side,  half  in  the  water.  Now  a  space  must  be  made 
for  the  fish.  From  the  main-hatch  to  the  after-cabin  a 
plank  is  laid  on  its  edge  on  either  side,  thereby  making, 
with  the  uprights  of  the  hatchways,  a  rectangular  case 
into  which  the  net  may  be  emptied. 

As  far  as  in  them  lies,  these  Dutch  fishers  evince  the 
same  momentary  excitement  over  the  contents  of  the  net 
that  we  have  seen  among  the  trawlers.  After  looking  at 
a  full  trawl-net  this  one  seems  curiously  small  and  empty ; 
and,  as  a  hauling-line  is  thrown  round  the  waist  of  the 
net,  it  looks  as  though  we  could  pull  it  out  of  the  water 
with  one  hand  ;  nevertheless,  there  is  four  hundredweight 
or  more  in  that  bag-like  contrivance,  and  the  men  find 
quite  enough  difficulty  in  hoisting  it  out  of  the  water 
and  over  the  bulwarks. 

The  mouth  is  laid  inside  the  temporary  enclosure,  and 
then,  with  a  good  deal  of  lifting  and  shaking,  the  catch 
is  emptied,  the  net  examined  in  case  of  possible  breakages 
among  the  meshes,  and  then  thrown  in  again. 

Now  have  a  look  at  the  catch ;  a  most  interesting  sight 
when  seen  for  the  first  time  ;  a  grey-green,  glistening,  and 

45 


SHRIMPING,   MUSSELLING 

slightly  palpitating  mass,  speckled  with  the  dark  green, 
pink,  red,  or  white  bodies  of  crabs  of  all  sorts  and  sizes. 
Here  and  there  is  a  something  that  brings  a  moment's 
pleasure  to  the  eyes  of  the  men :  a  good  plump  sole  or 
two,  for  which  a  private  buyer  will  probably  give  fifty 
cents  apiece;  perhaps  even  a  turbot,  the  sale  of  which 
will  keep  the  crew  in  tobacco  for  close  on  a  week ;  perhaps 
a  handful  of  prawns. 

But  looking  at  them  will  not  sort  the  fish.  Here 
begins  the  really  hard  work ;  shrimps,  and  nothing  but 
shrimps,  must  go  into  the  boiling-copper,  and  no  genius 
has  yet  arisen  to  separate  them  from  the  rubbish  by  other 
means  than  going  down  on  the  hands  and  knees  and 
picking  out  good  from  no  good.  In  warm  weather  this 
part  of  the  work  is  troublesome  enough ;  but  try  it  in 
winter  with  the  rain  or  sleet  beating  in  your  face,  and 
your  hands  aching  with  cold.  Aching  is  a  very  mild 
term  ;  I  have  seen  stalwart  fellows,  who  have  experi- 
enced all  the  terrors  of  Antarctic  and  Iceland  weather, 
almost  cry  with  the  cold  in  their  fingers,  while  en- 
gaged in  shrimp-sorting  within  thirty  miles  of  the 
English  coast. 

But  to  work ;  and  go  gingerly,  for  there  be  crabs 
about;  not  one  of  them  big  enough  to  be  eaten,  but 
literally  thousands  that  are  prepared  to  eat  as  much  of 
you  as  you  feel  disposed  to  let  them.  Here  is  one  nasty 
little  wretch — the  "  fliker "  or  fly-crab  the  men  call  it — 
no  bigger  than  a  five-shilling  piece,  that  will  make  a  dead 
set  at  you  and  bite  to  the  bone.  Smash  him  with  your 
boot  or  a  stone,  for  he  devours  the  fish  and  is  no  good 

46 


AND   LINE-FISHING 

even  as  whelk-bait.  Other  kinds  of  crabs  are  allowed 
to  depart  in  peace,  but  not  this  one  if  it  can  be  helped. 

Lightly  flicking  out  the  shrimps  with  the  finger-tips, 
the  men  gradually  raise  them  into  heaps,  which  are  soon 
scraped  into  a  tub  by  the  "  boiler,"  and  thrown  into 
the  copper.  Now  and  then  a  few  dabs,  codling,  or 
whiting  are  found ;  they  are  thrown  into  a  bucket  for 
subsequent  sale  or  supper.  Lightly  veiled  by  a  sparse 
covering  of  shrimps  is  another  white  body ;  "  more  fish," 
you  say,  and  go  to  take  hold  of  it ;  but  it  is  a  white- 
bellied  crab,  which  fact  you  may  not  discover,  if  you  are 
foolish  enough  to  put  your  hand  on  it,  till  the  crab 
himself  informs  you.  Now  here  is  a  fox-fish ;  a  thing 
something  like  a  fat  whiting,  spotted  with  grey  and 
black.  Take  him  by  the  tail  and  throw  him  overboard 
behind  you  as  quickly  and  carefully  as  if  he  were  red- 
hot  ;  hold  him  two  seconds  and  you  will  regret  it.  His 
gill-cover  is  elongated  into  a  sharp,  stiff  spike,  and  the 
moment  he  is  touched  he  springs  round  salmon-like  and 
digs  this  into  you,  or  scratches  you  with  it.  Fishermen 
say  that  the  sting  is  poisonous,  but,  experto  crede,  it  is 
nothing  of  the  kind.  He  is  no  good  for  eating,  but  if 
you  find  a  relative  of  his,  the  weever,  put  him  aside; 
skinned  and  fried  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  fish  more 
delicate  and  satisfying.  It  has  the  same  weapon — and 
the  same  handy  way  of  using  it — as  the  fox-fish. 

At  last  the  sorting  is  done;  the  waste  is  brushed 
through  the  port-holes  and  the  crew  are  ready  for  the 
second  hauling.  The  number  of  the  hauls  will  depend 
on  the  light,  the  weather,  and  the  plentifulness  of  the 

47 


SHRIMPING,   MUSSELLING 

fish.  If  these  are  scarce,  the  sorting  will  be  finished 
quickly,  and  the  men  all  the  sooner  free  for  another 
haul ;  if  there  is  little  wind  the  net  must  stay  down 
longer,  for  in  such  a  case  it  is  often  being  dragged  over 
the  same  spot  again  and  again  instead  of  going  on  to 
fresh  ground.  Four  hauls  per  day  would  be  a  fair  average. 

Now  let  us  watch  the  man  who  is  responsible  for  the 
boiling.  There  he  is,  down  in  the  hold,  giving  the  fish 
a  stir  round  from  time  to  time,  or  throwing  them  up  by 
the  dipper-full  into  the  strainer.  His  water  has  nearly 
boiled  away,  and  one  of  the  crew  dips  him  another  couple 
of  bucketfuls  from  over  the  side;  and,  as  this  comes  to 
the  boil,  we  have  an  opportunity  of  watching  the  cook- 
ing process  right  through.  Into  the  copper  goes  a  piled 
pailful  of  the  grey-green,  semi-transparent  fish,  and  as 
the  water  closes  over  them,  we  hear  a  faint  cheep-cheep 
sound ;  this  is  not  the  wailing  of  the  shrimps ;  it  is 
merely  the  water  running  into  the  air-passages,  and  you 
would  hear  the  same  noise  were  the  fish  given  a  cold  bath 
instead  of  a  hot. 

In  a  minute  or  two  the  shrimps  have  changed  their 
colour ;  they  are  "  done,"  and  the  boiler  dips  them  out 
and  throws  them  on  the  top  of  the  others  that  are 
draining  in  the  sieve.  Now  try  them ;  if  you  have  once 
tasted  newly  caught  shrimps  hot,  you  will  not  give  a  Jico 
for  them  eaten  cold.  You  can  eat  as  many  as  you  like, 
for  they  are  plentiful  enough  generally ;  many  are 
destined  never  to  come  to  the  shop  or  the  market  at  all, 
but  to  be  thrown  on  the  land  as  manure.  Perhaps,  when 
these  poor  fishermen  get  ashore,  a  telegram  will  be  await- 

48 


AND   LINE-FISHING 

ing  them  to  the  effect  that  their  dealer  can  take  no  more 
shrimps  for  another  three  days. 

A  shrimp-boiler  has  one  trouble  in  life,  for  which  the 
young  skate  and  other  small  fry  are  responsible.  Many 
dark-skinned  fish,  in  their  baby  form,  are  the  exact  length 
and  colour  of  shrimps,  and,  however  carefully  sorted  the 
fish  may  have  been,  several  of  these  are  sure  to  appear 
among  those  set  aside  for  boiling.  Before  these  are 
thrown  into  the  copper  they  are  closely  inspected  again, 
and  even  then  a  score  of  trespassers  will  appear  in  the 
boiling  water,  time  after  time  deluding  the  boiler  into 
the  belief  that  they  are  half-cooked  shrimps. 

As  the  sieve  fills,  the  shrimps  are  taken  out  and  put 
into  bags ;  and  so  the  day  goes  on  till  eighty  or  a  hun- 
dred or  more  gallons  are  thus  stowed  away,  and  the  boat 
heads  for  home  with  the  returning  tide.  The  shrimps 
will  be  taken  ashore,  measured  into  barrels,  canvased 
down,  and  sent  away  by  cart  or  train. 

Is  there  much  danger  in  shrimping  ?  A  certain  amount, 
weather  apart,  even;  because,  when  men  are  working  a 
whole  tide,  it  is  often  necessary  to  do  some  of  the  fishing 
in  the  half-light  of  morning  or  evening,  and  it  is  then 
that  accidents  take  place.  At  such  a  time  a  man  may  be 
unwittingly  standing  in  the  way  of  a  warp  which  he  can 
scarcely  see,  while  the  net  is  being  shot,  and  may  find 
himself  entangled  in  it  suddenly  and  dragged  overboard 
almost  before  he  can  cry  out.  In  this  way  a  certain 
number  of  lives  are  lost  every  year,  for  the  bulk  of  the 
work  being  done  by  daylight,  few  boats  ever  trouble  to 
carry  a  lamp. 

D  49 


SHRIMPING,   MUSSELLING 

Why  are  some  shrimps  pink  and  others  brown  ?  is  a 
question  that  has  puzzled  many  of  us  in  childhood.  The 
pink  shrimps  appear  to  be  a  sort  of  connecting  link  be- 
tween the  brown  ones  and  prawns.  The  two  are  seldom 
found  together  in  great  numbers ;  in  a  neighbourhood 
where  the  shrimps  are  brown  there  will  also  be  a 
sprinkling  of  the  others,  and  vice  versa. 

The  prawn,  apart  from  being  much  larger,  is  dis- 
tinguished from  the  shrimp  by  its  saw-like  spine  and  by 
its  enormously  long  external  antennae,  which  are  half  as 
long  again  as  the  fish  itself.  A  live  prawn  is  a  most 
beautiful  thing :  steel-grey,  marked  all  over  with  purple 
spots  and  lines ;  its  eyes  are  its  most  extraordinary 
feature,  for  they  stand  out  like  spots  of  flame  or  of  the 
most  brilliantly  burnished  copper.  In  their  adult  con- 
dition prawns  are  less  fond  of  deep  water  than  shrimps, 
though  a  few  are  generally  taken  in  the  shrimp-net. 
They  rather  prefer  the  still,  clear  pools  among  the  rocks, 
where  they  play  and  hide  among  the  seaweed.  They  are 
caught  in  two  ways :  in  traps  like  the  ordinary  lobster- 
pot  on  a  smaller  scale ;  and  in  a  sort  of  landing-net,  made 
by  hanging  a  net-bag  on  an  iron  hoop  fixed  at  the  end 
of  a  long  pole. 

When  fishermen  have  nothing  better  to  do,  another 
branch  of  the  trade  is  open  to  them  whenever  the  weather 
permits — musselling. 

Sea-water  mussels  are  divisible  into  many  classes,  but 
the  two  best  known  are  the  common  mussel  and  the 
horn-mussel ;  the  latter  differing  slightly  from  the  former 
in  shape  and  in  its  habit  of  digging  and  burrowing  in 


AND   LINE-FISHING 

the  sand.  As  an  article  of  food,  these  animals  are  prob- 
ably as  nourishing  as  oysters,  though  they  are  so  often 
said  to  be  poisonous.  Whether  they  are  so,  or  not,  must, 
as  with  snails,  depend  largely  upon  the  feeding ;  a  mussel 
that  has  passed  a  good  part  of  its  life  clinging  to  the 
copper  bottom  of  a  liner  can  scarcely  be  wholesome  as 
food.  In  any  case  the  fish  should  never  be  eaten  during 
the  summer  months. 

But  why  "  go  after  "  mussels  when  so  many  millions  of 
them  are  to  be  picked  from  rocks,  breakwaters,  and  mud- 
or  shingle-banks  ? 

The  question  is  reasonable  enough,  though  it  would 
never  be  asked  by  any  one  who  had  the  least  idea  as  to 
the  number  of  mussels  that  are  used  in  the  United 
Kingdom  alone,  every  year.  Hundreds  of  thousands,  not 
of  mussels,  but  of  tons  of  mussels,  are  gathered  annually 
and  sold ;  and,  absurd  as  it  may  sound,  there  is  little 
difference  between  the  profits  made  on  them  and  those 
derived  from  the  oyster-fishery.  To  France  alone,  the 
Belgians  export  over  twelve  million  francs'*  (half  a  million 
pounds1)  worth  every  year. 

Then  who  are  the  consumers  ? 

The  ground,  in  the  first  place ;  all  the  small  mussels, 
and  those  which  may  have  been  tainted  with  sewage  or 
poisoned  by  the  copper  bottoms  of  ships,  are  sent  away 
by  the  barge-load  for  manure,  or  for  lightening  heavy 
clay  soil. 

Secondly,  the  poor.  Apart  from  those  mussels  that 
are  eaten  from  choice,  or  those  which  the  fisher-people 
out  of  work  are  sometimes  glad  to  make  a  dinner  of, 

51 


SHRIMPING,   MUSSELLING 

many  tons  of  them  are  eaten  by  the  London  poor  alone, 
every  winter ;  buying  them  at  a  penny  a  quart,  a  family 
can  have  a  meal  for  twopence. 

Even  then,  we  have  not  accounted  for  a  third  of  the 
numbers  given  above.  The  prime  mussels  are  required  as 
bait  for  line-fishing,  and  are  sold  at  the  rate  of  rather 
less  than  £2  a  ton  (over  51,000  fish  go  to  the  ton). 
Many  boats'  crews  of  the  Scotch  and  North  Country 
fishers  who  go  out  into  deep  water  for  cod,  haddock,  etc., 
will  use  over  four  tons  per  boat,  in  a  month,  in  this 
manner.  Wherefore  let  it  no  longer  be  wondered  at, 
that  a  shrimp-  or  oyster-boat,  in  her  otherwise  idle  spells, 
should  go  a-musselling.  Mussels  used  in  the  pearl- 
industry  will  be  discussed  in  a  subsequent  chapter. 

Not  only  are  these  useful  bivalves  gathered  for  sale, 
but,  in  some  parts  of  the  coast,  they  are  collected  and 
transplanted  to  special  beds  with  as  much  care  as  if  they 
were  oysters.  Those  taken  from  the  beach,  it  may  be 
noticed,  are  rarely  fat  and  full ;  perhaps  the  constant  out- 
going of  the  tide  disturbs  their  feeding.  Therefore  it  is 
necessary  to  find  those  that  frequent  moderately  deep 
water ;  and  these  are  obtained  by  dredging.  The  dredge 
used  is  very  like  that  employed  for  oyster-catching ;  it  is 
thrown  overboard  from  a  barge  or  smack,  and  the  mussels 
that  it  brings  up  are  picked  out  from  the  accompanying 
mud  and  rubbish  and  stowed  in  the  hold. 

Musselling  is  much  more  irksome  than  shrimping,  for 
the  men  are  often  away  for  several  days  without  a  break, 
their  object  being  not  to  catch  so  many  boxes  full  or  so 
many  gallons,  but  to  fill  their  boat  till  she  cannot  possibly 

52 


AND   LINE-FISHING 

find  room  for  another  mussel.  Nevertheless,  the  work  has 
its  compensations :  there  will  certainly  not  be  a  telegram 
when  the  crew  get  ashore  to  say  that  their  cargo  is  not 
wanted ;  mussels  are  always  wanted ;  if  not  by  the  ordin- 
ary consumer,  by  the  breeder. 

If  the  fishing  has  been  done  from  a  smack,  there  are 
barges  waiting  for  her  cargo  to  be  shovelled  into ;  if  a 
barge  has  been  used,  she  will  either  let  herself  be  landed 
high  and  dry,  when  she  will  unload  into  carts,  or  else  she 
will  carry  her  fish  straight  away  up  north  or  wherever 
they  are  wanted.  A  stranger  looking  at  one  of  these  flat- 
bottomed,  ungainly  craft  close  at  hand,  as  she  lies  on  the 
Thames  mud,  would  be  as  surprised  when  he  saw  the  same 
barge  out  at  sea  as  he  would  if  told  the  number  of  miles 
she  travels  in  the  course  of  a  twelvemonth.  Looked  at 
from  a  distance  when  she  is  out  at  sea  she  seems  as  grace- 
ful a  ship  as  sails,  in  spite  of  her  funny  little  mizzen. 
When  you  see  her  empty  and  realise  her  storage  accommo- 
dation, you  do  not  wonder  that  she  is  used  in  mussel- 
dredging,  considering  the  enormous  numbers  that  must  be 
caught  before  the  profits  can  be  appreciable ;  for,  as  bait 
or  manure,  the  catch  will  fetch  less  than  a  penny  a 
hundred. 

Mention  of  mussel-bait  brings  us  to  the  consideration 
of  how,  and  by  whom,  it  is  used  to  such  an  extraordinary 
extent. 

Line-fishing  is  probably  of  far  more  ancient  date  than 
netting ;  for  that  matter,  there  are  savages  that  have  used 
that  method  for  centuries,  and  still  have  not  dreamt  of 
catching  their  fish  in  quantities,  by  means  of  nets.  As  a 

53 


SHRIMPING,   MUSSELLING 

branch  of  the  civilised  fisherman's  trade  it  can  never  be 
superseded  until  the  fish  have  ceased  to  frequent  those 
parts  of  the  ocean-bed  where  no  net  will  go,  and  till  such 
fish  as  conger-eels  will  allow  themselves  to  be  taken  in 
respectable  numbers  by  the  trawl. 

The  simplest  form  of  this  fishing  is  by  the  use  of 
"hand  lines" — single  lines,  carrying  one  or  more  hooks, 
the  upper  end  being  kept  in  the  hand  while  fishing  is 
going  on ;  such  lines  are  pulled  up  as  soon  as  there  is  a 
bite,  the  fish  gaffed  off,  and  the  hook  rebaited.  Naturally 
the  hooks  vary  in  size  and  number  according  to  the  fish 
sought.  They  may  be  seen  all  along  the  South  Coast  in 
use  for  whiting,  which,  belonging  to  the  cod  family,  are 
more  easily  taken  by  hook  than  any  other  small  sea-fish. 

The  southern  whiting  fishery  is  mainly  in  the  hands  of 
individual  fishermen,  each  man  going  off  in  his  small 
rowing-boat  and  working  on  his  own  account,  subse- 
quently selling  the  fish  at  the  local  market. 

The  same  kind  of  line  is  used  off  the  Norfolk  coast  for 
cod,  with  a  bit  of  cuttle-fish  as  bait. 

Far  more  pretentious  and  important  is  the  "  long-line  " 
fishing  which  we  find  going  on  in  the  north  and  east, 
and  in  Scotland;  turbot,  cod,  ling,  and  haddock  are 
caught  by  the  thousand  in  this  way,  both  from  small  and 
from  large  boats.  The  smacks  from  the  Northumbrian 
fishing  villages  go  out  towards  the  "bad"  parts  of  the 
Dogger  and  work  as  long  as  their  bait  lasts.  Rowing- 
boats,  too,  do  a  lot  of  coast  work  off  Norfolk  and  Lincoln, 
going  out  and  coming  in  with  the  tide. 

When  a  smack^s  crew  is  going  off  long-line  fishing,  it 

54 


THE  MUSSEL-BAITERS 

Mussel-baiting  is  a  constant  occupation  with  the  children  and  women-folk 
of  the  North-Country  long-line  fishers. 


AND   LINE-FISHING 

may  be  noticed  that  each  man  has  a  small  supply  of 
baskets,  otherwise  known  as  "  skeps  "  and  "  creels."  Each 
of  these  contains  a  line,  with  hooks  ready  baited  ;  in  fact, 
mussel-baiting  is  a  constant  occupation  with  the  children 
and  womenfolk  of  these  men.  When  the  baits  have  been 
fixed,  the  line  is  carefully  coiled  round  and  round,  with 
the  hooks  in  the  middle,  laid  in  the  skep,  and  fresh  grass 
or  moss  sprinkled  over  the  bait  to  keep  it  from  drying. 
Some  of  the  lines  bear  as  many  as  600  hooks,  and  each 
has  been  artfully  concealed  with  a  mussel  or,  in  default,  a 
bit  of  herring.  Every  member  of  the  crew  must  con- 
tribute a  certain  number  of  such  lines ;  generally  three  or 
four. 

When  the  boat  reaches  the  ground  she  shortens  sail  (or 
steams  gently  along,  for  there  are  now  many  steamers  en- 
gaged in  this  work)  and  preparations  are  made  for  sinking 
the  lines.  First  of  all,  an  iron  weight  or  heavy  stone 
tied  to  the  end  of  two  lines  is  thrown  overboard ;  the 
upper  end  of  one  of  these  which,  when  the  weight  is 
down,  just  reaches  to  the  surface,  is  fastened  to  a  buoy 
which  carries  a  flagstaff.  To  the  other  line — the  be- 
ginning of  the  "main-line" — one  of  the  baited  lines  has 
been  joined,  or  "bent  on,"  at  some  distance  from  the 
weight,  and  is  now  allowed  to  run  itself  out  as  the  boat 
drifts  gently  on. 

During  this  proceeding  one  of  the  men  is  standing  at 
the  bulwarks  holding  a  short  metal  bar  at  ami's  length 
over  the  side  of  the  boat,  for  the  line  to  run  over ;  by 
which  precaution  the  hooks  are  prevented  from  possibly 
catching  in  the  boat-side.  Before  the  whole  length  of 

55 


SHRIMPING,   MUSSELLING 

this  line  has  been  run  out  another  is  bent  on  by  its  free 
end,  and,  in  its  turn,  has  a  third  joined  to  it  in  the  same 
way  as  before,  till  all  the  lines  are  used  up  and  stretch 
perhaps  two  or  three  miles  out  to  sea,  lying  across  the 
tide  so  that  the  ends  of  line  that  bear  the  hooks  are 
kept  by  the  force  of  the  current  at  right-angles  to  the 
main  line. 

But  before  the  last  of  the  lines  has  been  allowed  to 
sink,  another  weighted  cord  has  been  fastened  to  it  a 
few  yards  from  the  hooked  end  and  secured  to  a  second 
flagged  buoy  as  before.  Now  comes  half  an  hour's — 
perhaps  an  hour's — rest  for  the  men ;  it  is  probably  all 
they  will  get  till  the  fishing  is  ended  for  the  day;  for 
many  boats  carry  an  extra  set  of  lines  ready  to  be  shot  as 
soon  as  these  are  pulled  up.  At  the  end  of  the  half-hour 
or  hour,  one  of  the  buoy-lines  is  dragged  up,  and  brings 
with  it  the  first  part  of  the  main-line.  These  men  are 
now  pulling  up  from  eight  to  ten  pounds'  worth  of  fish, 
and  the  lines  are  worth  even  more ;  no  wonder  they  haul 
in  carefully.  The  fish  are  coming  to  the  top  at  last — 
haddock,  halibut,  skate,  ling,  cod,  gurnard,  turbot,  eels, 
and  plaice ;  rarely  soles,  for  they  can  seldom  be  persuaded 
to  bite  at  a  bait ;  they  prefer  a  diet  of  mud,  sewage,  and 
seaweed. 

Some  of  the  hooks  are  destitute  of  both  fish  and  bait, 
which  means  that  the  "  five-fingers "  and  the  crabs  have 
been  indulging  in  an  easily  acquired  meal ;  other  hooks 
bear  mere  useless  lumber:  sea-spiders,  crabs,  and  star- 
fish that  have  been  led  to  their  ruin  through  over-much 
greed.  Occasionally  the  jawless  "hag-fish"  appears; 

56 


AND   LINE-FISHING 

this  elegant  creature  has  swallowed  the  hook  entirely  and 
is  trying  to  digest  it. 

To  gaff  and  sort  this  collection  is  almost  a  day's  work 
in  itself,  even  if  there  were  no  second  set  of  lines  to  see 
to.  But  at  last  it  is  done  ;  the  fish  lie  in  the  hold 
sprinkled  with  salt,  and  the  smack  runs  for  the  shore. 
There  are  plenty  of  people  waiting  for  her ;  wives  and 
children  of  the  crew,  small  salesmen  with  donkey-carts, 
perhaps  a  big  dealer  or  two  from  the  towns.  She  comes 
in  as  near  as  she  can,  then  throws  out  a  tow-line,  which 
is  grabbed  at  by  every  man,  woman,  child,  and  dog  that 
is  without  other  occupation,  and  the  boat  vigorously 
hauled  up  by  them,  unless  the  beach  happens  to  boast  a 
capstan.  None  so  ready  to  bear  a  hand  to  help  another 
as  the  fisher-folk.  When  did  you  ever  hear  a  fisherman 
ask  for  help  in  beaching  his  boat  ?  They  have  been  used 
all  their  lives  to  aiding  one  another  in  that  as  well  as  in 
more  substantial  ways  than  the  mere  lending  a  pull  to  a 
boat  or  rope. 

One  of  the  dealers  casts  a  calculating  eye  over  the 
catch,  and  makes  his  offer — which  of  course  is  not 
accepted ;  but,  after  a  good  deal  of  haggling,  or  perhaps 
of  auctioneering,  the  catch  is  sold. 

Now  the  barrels  of  the  dealers  come  rolling  down  the 
shingle ;  every  one  pulls  out  a  knife  and  begins  cleaning 
the  fish  as  if  his  life  depended  on  it;  and,  in  less  than 
no  time,  they  are  packed  and  on  their  way  to  the  railway 
station,  while  the  baskets  of  lines  are  carried  home  by  the 
fish-wives  to  be  patiently  cleaned  and  rebaited  for  the 
next  day's  toil. 

57 


SHRIMPING  AND   LINE-FISHING 

Before  we  leave  the  subject  of  long-line  fishing  we 
must  notice  that  done  in  winter  by  the  Yarmouth  and 
Cromer  deep-sea  fishermen  when  they  are  not  trawling 
or  after  the  herring.  Most  of  it  is  done  from  "hatch- 
boats,"  large  single-  or  two-masted  smacks  like  those  used 
for  trawling,  but  differing  in  that  they  have  a  well — a 
part  of  the  hold  into  which  water  can  be  run ;  for  the 
men  are  often  away  some  days  at  a  time,  and  the  fish — 
cod  and  ling — have  to  be  brought  back  alive. 

If  the  North  Countrymen's  lines  were  "long,"  those 
found  here  are  unspeakable  as  regards  length  ;  from  seven 
to  ten  miles  of  line  are  paid  out  by  the  hatch-boats, 
often  carrying  five  thousand  hooks  at  a  time.  The  ground 
is  the  Dogger,  the  bait  whelks  and  cuttle-fish.  The 
method  of  setting  the  lines  is  the  same  as  that  already 
described. 

There  is  another  kind  of  tackle — a  short  long-line, 
worked  on  the  same  principle,  and  known  as  a  "  bulter." 
The  Sussex  fishermen  use  it  with  cuttle-fish  bait  for 
congers,  skate,  and  hake,  shooting  it  from  large  rowing- 
boats. 


CHARTER  V 
SALMON-FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY 

The  salmon — Annual  migration — Jumping — Spawning — Fry,  smolt, 
and  grilse— The  Columbian  grounds — Trap-nets— Seines— Hauling 
in  by  horse-power— The  fish-wheel— Salmon-fishing  among  the 
Indians— Canadian  moored  gill-nets—Scandinavian  fishery— The 
Sogne  and  Hardanger  fjords— Natural  Salmon-traps — Seines  and 
net-weirs—Lapps  and  Finns  as  fishers— The  sea-swallow— Salmon- 
netting  at  home— Close-time — Stake-nets  and  slow-nets. 

IN  this  chapter,  be  it  understood,  we  are  approaching 
the  salmon  from  a  strictly  business  point  of  view ; 
the  salmon  as  he  is  caught  for  sale  and  export,  for 
the  benefit  of  persons  who  are  content  to  purchase  six- 
pennyworth  of  him  at  a  time  and  in  a  tin,  or  of  those 
who  buy  him  fresh  or  dried  at  their  fishmonger's. 

The  supple,  elegant  form  of  the  salmon  is  as  familiar 
to  every  one  as  is  the  delicate  pink  of  its  flesh.  No  fish 
has  been  so  written  about,  legislated  about,  experimented 
on,  undigested,  and  misunderstood ;  few  are  more  profit- 
able from  the  fisher's,  tradesman's,  and  doctor's  point  of 
view.  The  fishery  has  been  known  at  least  as  far  back 
as  early  in  the  Christian  era,  and  the  trade  in  dried 
salmon  is,  at  any  rate  in  Scotland  and  Northumbria,  a 
very  ancient  one.  At  the  time  of  Edward  IFs  conflict 
with  Bruce  we  find  orders  being  given  by  the  English 

59 


SALMON-FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY 

King  for  three  thousand  dried  salmon  for  the  use  of  his 
soldiers.  Bergen,  too,  on  the  Norwegian  coast,  traces 
its  fishery  back  to  mediaeval  times. 

The  West  Canadian  and  United  States  fishery,  with 
which  we  shall  first  deal,  is  the  newest,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  most  profitable  and  most  productive  of  any; 
more  than  half  a  million  cases  of  tinned  fish  being  ex- 
ported every  year  from  round  about  the  Fraser  River 
alone. 

The  annual  migration  of  these  fish  is  very  remarkable. 
They  enter  the  rivers  in  spring,  as  soon  as  the  waters 
have  become  more  or  less  swollen  by  the  rains,  swimming 
in  great  numbers  and  usually  in  mid- stream  and  near  the 
surface.  At  the  beginning  of  the  migration  the  shoals 
seem  nervous  and  easily  frightened;  so  much  so  that  a 
floating  spar  or  bit  of  timber,  or  any  shock  such  as  the 
blasting  of  rocks  near  at  hand,  has  been  known  to  drive 
them  out  to  sea  again.  But,  once  well  in  the  stream, 
their  conduct  is  reversed ;  nothing  will  daunt  them ; 
nothing  will  turn  them  back ;  rapids,  currents,  and  whirl- 
pools are  matters  of  little  moment  to  them ;  they  will 
spring  from  the  low  level  to  the  top  of  a  cascade  ten  or 
fifteen  feet  high.  Their  perseverance  is  astounding.  On 
reaching  a  cascade,  a  fish,  making  a  bent  spring  of  its 
body  by  taking  its  tail  in  its  mouth,  will  suddenly  shoot 
upwards,  higher,  perhaps,  than  the  upper  level,  yet  often 
at  an  insufficient  angle  to  enable  it  to  reach  it,  and  back 
it  falls  with  a  crash,  only  to  "  get  breath  "  and  then  make 
another,  possibly  successful,  attempt. 

Sometimes,  after  a  score  of  fruitless  tries  at  jumping 

60 


SALMON-FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY 

up,  the  salmon  will  apparently  abandon  the  attempt, 
remaining  somnolent  at  the  foot  of  the  rapid;  but  all 
it  is  doing  really  is  harbouring  its  strength  for  a  further 
attempt,  which  the  plucky  creature  will  make  after  a  few 
days'  rest. 

Another  interesting  point  relating  to  the  up-river 
journey  is  the  much-debated  question  as  to  whether  the 
fish  possesses  a  memory.  Scientific  men  are  now  satisfied 
that  the  same  fish  frequently,  though  not  invariably,  visit 
the  same  rivers  for  the  spawning  season ;  and  many 
authorities  are  of  opinion  that  this  is  due  to  the  exercise 
of  memory  and  preference ;  albeit  others  still  maintain 
that  the  salmon  does  not  know  the  coast-line  (being  in  the 
habit  of  seeking  deep  water  as  soon  as  it  reaches  the  sea 
in  its  outward  journey)  and  so  enters  the  first  river-mouth 
it  meets  with,  which  often  happens  to  be  the  same. 

The  Fraser,  it  may  be  remembered,  is  an  exceptionally 
swift-flowing  river;  yet  salmon  will  swim  up  it  at  an 
average  rate  of  forty  miles  a  day — a  pace  which  they  can 
increase  to  nearly  two  hundred  in  calm  water. 

Having  at  length  reached  the  shallower  parts  of  the 
stream  near  the  source,  the  fish  choose  their  spawning 
grounds  from  the  sandy  river-bed,  plough  up  the  sand 
with  their  snouts,  working  all  the  while  against  the 
stream  ;  for  if  they  worked  with  their  heads  down-stream 
the  water,  running  into  their  gills,  would  choke  them.  In 
the  furrow  thus  dug  they  deposit  their  eggs,  carefully 
covering  them  again  with  gravel. 

By  this  time  their  appearance  has  undergone  a  curious 
change ;  they  have  become  thin  and  flabby  and,  if  eaten 

61 


SALMON-FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY 

at  such  a  time,  would  be  unwholesome  if  not  poisonous. 
The  females  have  become  almost  black  ;  the  cheeks  of  the 
males  are  striped  a  red-gold,  the  body  covered  with  the 
same  tint,  and  the  lower  jaw  strangely  elongated. 

The  spawning  has  occupied  about  a  fortnight,  at  the 
end  of  which  time  the  fish  lie  about  in  the  stream  taking 
the  return  journey  by  easy  stages,  till  their  strength  is 
recruited.  Meanwhile  the  ova  lie  undisturbed,  covered 
up  till  about  the  end  of  the  following  March,  when  they 
may  be  said  to  be  hatched  and  have  become  "  fry  " ;  tiny, 
ugly  things,  pale  brown,  crossed  by  a  few  grey  marks. 
The  fry  will  remain  in  the  river  for  perhaps  another  year 
and,  by  then,  they  have  become  grey-green  on  the  back 
and  silvery  below,  are  nearly  six  inches  long,  and  are 
known  no  longer  as  fry  but  as  "smolt." 

After  two  or  three  months  in  the  sea  they  reappear  at 
the  river-mouths  weighing  from  three  to  four  pounds, 
which  weight  rapidly  increases  as  they  ascend  the  stream. 
At  this  stage  they  are  called  "  grilse. "  Grilse  remain  up- 
stream till  the  next  winter,  when  they  spawn  and  hence- 
forth are  dignified  by  the  title  of  salmon. 

The  bulk  of  the  American  salmon  comes  from  two 
rivers — the  Fraser  and  the  Columbia,  and  from  a  huge 
land-locked,  natural  harbour — Puget  Sound,  which,  a 
hundred  miles  long,  runs  southward  from  Juan  de  Fuca 
Strait  into  the  State  of  Washington.  Thus  the  salmon 
fishery  of  that  quarter  may  be  said  to  be  divided  almost 
equally  between  ourselves  and  the  Americans,  Canada 
having  the  Fraser,  and  the  States  the  Columbia;  while 
the  fish  that  leave  the  mouth  of  the  Fraser  become 

62 


SALMON-FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY 

American  property  if  they  follow  the  southern  current 
down  into  Puget  Sound,  Canadian  if  they  turn  north- 
wards into  Queen  Charlotte  Sound. 

There  is  little  hope  for  the  fish  when  they  swim  south- 
wards, for,  as  may  be  seen  from  a  map  of  Washington, 
Puget  Sound  is  a  natural  salmon-trap  on  a  very  large 
scale,  having  but  the  one  outlet,  and  that  split  up  by  a 
small  island ;  and  it  is  doubly  delusive  on  account  of  its 
great  depth,  which  leads  the  fish  to  suppose  that  they 
have  reached  the  open  sea. 

The  fishing,  which  lasts  about  five  months,  begins  in 
April,  and,  in  the  Sound,  is  done  chiefly  by  means  of 
trap-nets,  consisting  of  a  wall  of  netting,  sometimes  double 
with  a  narrow  space  between  the  two.  These  are  moored 
across  current  or  are  let  down  from  platforms  in  the 
quieter  parts  of  the  harbour. 

In  proportion  to  its  size  the  salmon  is  one  of  the 
strongest  fish  in  creation :  therefore  only  a  stout  net  will 
hold  him ;  the  meshes  of  such  nets  are  made  of  what  is 
known  as  Harbour's  twine,  a  single  thread  of  which  would 
hold  a  hundredweight  and  a  half. 

The  trap-net  is  set  late  in  the  afternoon  and  left  down 
all  night,  and  the  fish,  swimming  with  the  tide,  go 
straight  at  the  net,  which,  well  weighted  below,  hangs  per- 
pendicularly ;  small  fish  will  be  allowed  to  pass  through 
the  meshes,  but  the  larger  ones  soon  find  that  where  the 
heads  will  go  the  shoulders  will  not  follow;  they  can 
proceed  no  further  and,  naturally,  as  soon  as  they  try  to 
withdraw  their  heads,  the  cord  slips  itself  under  one  of 
the  gills  and  they  are  "  unavoidably  detained  "  henceforth. 

63 


SALMON-FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY 

Next  day  comes  the  hauling  up,  which  is  done  by  cords 
or  levers ;  in  the  case  of  moored  nets  the  catch  is  hauled 
alongside  the  boats  from  which  the  nets  were  shot,  but 
traps  are  pulled  straight  up  to  the  platform  from  which 
they  have  been  lowered,  and  are  left  hanging  while  the 
net  is  cleared ;  the  fish  as  they  are  taken  out  are  heaped 
in  boxes,  sprinkled  with  salt,  and  taken  ashore  for  drying. 

Before  leaving  the  Washington  fishermen,  we  must 
look  at  some  of  the  work  which  they  share  with  the 
Oregon  men  on  the  Columbia  River.  Between  Astoria  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  and  Portland,  sixty  miles 
inland,  is  another  valuable  salmon  ground;  here  the 
seine,  which  has  been  briefly  described  in  Chapter  II,  is 
used  in  addition  to  the  gill-net.  As  will  presently  appear, 
the  seine,  even  when  used  for  little  things  like  ancho- 
vies and  pilchards,  is  a  weighty  apparatus  to  draw  ashore; 
when  it  contains  salmon  it  is  almost  ponderous  enough  to 
call  for  steam-power. 

The  leaded  net  having  been  shot  in  a  half-circle  from  a 
couple  of  small  boats,  the  tow-lines  that  are  fixed  to  the 
two  edges  are  carried  to  the  bank ;  as  the  seine  has  prob- 
ably been  shot  across  stream,  the  rope  attached  to  the 
edge  nearer  the  bank  is  naturally  shorter.  This  one  is 
tied  down  as  soon  as  it  is  landed,  while  the  longer  line  is 
hauled  very  slowly  inwards,  in  such  a  manner  that  the 
farther  edge  or  wing  of  the  seine  is  made  to  describe  a 
curve,  and  until  the  two  wings  are  in  line  with  the  stream 
and  the  tow-ropes  of  equal  length  again.  During  this 
time  many  of  the  fish  which  have  been  going  towards  the 
sea  have  come  in  contact  with  the  net  and,  in  their  con- 

64 


SALMON-FISHING   AS  AN  INDUSTRY 

fusion,  have  been  swept  round  by  it ;  and,  before  they 
can  escape,  it  appears  to  them  that  they  are  walled  in  on 
every  side ;  the  real  fact  of  the  case  being  that  the  left 
wing  of  the  seine  has  now  been  pulled  round  to  where 
the  middle  was  at  first,  and  the  right  wing  has  cut  off'  the 
retreat  up  stream.  Well  for  those  that  have  the  sense  to 
see  that  so  far  escape  is  still,  in  reality,  as  possible  as  it 
was  at  first,  for  the  net  has  but  changed  its  position. 

But  now  the  chances  of  freedom  have  begun  to 
diminish,  for  the  left-hand  tow-line  being  now  crossed 
over  the  right,  the  men  on  the  bank  begin  to  pull  in  two 
different  directions  till  the  half-circle  has  become  a  whole 
one.  Above  the  net  there  is  no  escape,  for  the  upper 
edge  is  buoyed  on  the  surface  with  bladders  or  corks,  and 
now  that  the  edges  are  together,  every  step  taken  by  the 
haulers  is  lessening  the  opportunity  of  flight  via  the 
bottom.  At  last  the  seine-weights  touch  the  mud,  the 
salmon  are  trapped  beyond  all  hope  of  freedom,  and 
such  a  crowd  of  prisoners  is  there  that  the  combined 
efforts  of  the  three  or  four  men,  who  could  easily  tow  it 
while  it  was  a  floating  concern,  can  now  scarcely  move 
it  an  inch  further.  But  two  or  three  stout  dray-horses 
are  in  waiting ;  a  rope  or  chain  connected  with  the  tow- 
lines  is  hitched  to  them  and  the  net-full  drawn  up  high 
and  dry. 

A  little  higher  up  the  river  a  very  curious  form  of  trap 
is  in  use — the  fish- wheel,  which  is  shaped  and  worked  just 
like  an  ordinary  water-mill  wheel,  and  over  which  the  fish 
are  swept  into  a  staked  enclosure  ;  but  most  of  the  up- 
river  fishing  is  still  in  the  hands  of  the  remnants  of  the 

E  65 


SALMON-FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY 

Indian  tribes.  These  catch  the  salmon  more  for  their 
own  consumption  than  with  a  view  to  selling,  though 
some  of  the  younger  men  make  a  good  living  by  the  sale 
of  their  catches  in  the  towns.  Some  of  them  use  a  kind 
of  landing-net,  which  they  dip  in  front  of  any  fish  which 
may  come  near  enough  to  the  surface. 

But  the  spear  is  the  more  scientific  and — among  the 
young  Indians — the  more  popular  implement.  When  you 
get  a  couple  of  hundred  miles  up  the  Columbia  it  is  full 
of  rapids,  and  at  the  foot  of  any  one  of  these  is  the  happy 
fishing-ground  of  the  natives.  During  the  upward  and 
the  downward  migration  the  redskins,  with  light  spears, 
some  tethered,  some  free,  sit  in  their  birch  canoes  and 
watch  for  the  jumping  or  the  dropping  of  the  salmon. 
The  accuracy  with  which  these  fellows  aim  is  extra- 
ordinary ;  some  will  stand  and  throw  harpoons  at  the 
curved,  glistening  bodies  as  they  shoot  through  the  air; 
others,  more  deft,  will  spit  them  as  they  rise  or  fall,  never 
leaving  hold  of  the  spear. 

The  Fraser  fisheries  are  carried  on  in  much  the  same 
way  as  those  of  the  Columbia,  but  a  word  or  two  ought 
to  be  said  about  the  Canadian  river-mouth  fishing,  which 
is  done  by  moored  gill-nets.  The  work  connected  with  it 
makes  the  river-bank  fishing  seem  very  safe  and  easy,  for 
it  is  done  in  small,  two-manned  boats,  and  often  in  as 
choppy  a  sea  as  the  Pacific  can  boast — which  just  here, 
almost  within  the  sweep  of  the  Japan  Jcuro  shiwo  current, 
can  be  very  ugly  when  it  likes.  Here  you  may  see  a 
couple  of  thousand  small  boats — for  at  least  that  number 
is  employed  in  the  British  Columbian  fleet — tossing  about 

66 


SALMON-FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY 

in  Queen  Charlotte  Sound  or  Hecate  Strait,  setting  or 
hauling  up  nets,  the  only  outward  and  visible  sign  of 
which  (while  they  are  down)  is  a  moored  buoy.  The  full 
nets,  on  being  dragged  to  the  surface,  are  towed  ashore  or 
to  larger  craft,  others  being  left  in  their  place. 

When  the  fish  have  been  taken  to  land,  whether  from 
sea  or  river,  sorting  and  cleaning  begin.  Doubtful  or  un- 
sound fish  are  thrown  aside  with  the  waste ;  indeed,  so 
plentiful  are  the  salmon  that  only  the  pick  of  them  need 
be  saved ;  and,  when  it  comes  to  the  boiling,  only  the 
prime  parts  cooked.  Those  for  drying  and  smoking  are 
taken  to  a  special  warehouse  for  the  process,  which  will 
last  some  weeks ;  the  others  are  boiled,  often  on  the  river- 
bank  itself,  and  are  then  handed  over  to  Chinamen,  by 
whom  practically  the  whole  of  the  canning  is  done. 

The  Scandinavian  fisheries,  too,  are  profitable  and 
splendidly  managed.  An  English  fisherman  once  told  me 
that  the  Norwegian  fishers  were  "  the  frightenest  people  " 
he  had  ever  seen,  but  the  statement  is  libellous — or,  at 
any  rate,  untrue ;  for  they  are  hardy  fellows  with  older 
sea  traditions  than  our  own  and,  whether  working  in  the 
sheltered  fjords  or  in  the  open  sea,  accept  the  dangerous 
side  of  their  trade  as  part  of  the  day's  labour.  Though  as 
business-men  they  are  keen  enough,  there  is  a  suggestion 
of  romance  about  work  done  amid  some  of  the  most  ex- 
quisite scenery  in  the  world,  that  is  somewhat  lacking 
where  the  ultra-practical  salmon-slaughter  for  dollars  of 
North  America  is  concerned. 

Here  the  river  salmon-grounds  are  largely  let  to  British 

67 


SALMON-FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY 

sportsmen,  so  that  the  business  part  of  the  fishing  is  done 
mainly  in  the  fjords  and  at  the  river-mouths. 

How  should  a  salmon  know  the  difference  between  a 
river-mouth  and  long,  narrow  openings  into  the  land  such 
as  the  Sogne  and  Hardanger  fjords,  which,  from  the 
open  sea,  look  exactly  like  estuaries  ?  He  doesn't,  until 
he  has  explored  such  openings;  and  this  is  a  work  of 
time,  for  the  Sogne  Fjord  is  "all  arms  and  legs/1  Thirty 
miles  down  it  widens,  basin-shaped ;  a  little  further  on, 
a  river-like  opening  runs  up  into  the  land  on  either  side 
and,  beyond  these  creeks,  are  five  others,  two  of  them 
nearly  thirty  miles  long,  very  narrow,  and  winding  away 
into  the  Jotunfeld  group,  so  that  there  is  nothing  but 
salt  water  to  distinguish  them  from  short  mountain 
rivers.  And  not  always  that,  for  little  streams  of  fresh 
water  empty  themselves  into  one  or  two  of  these,  and 
are  not  infrequently  used  as  spawning-grounds. 

The  narrower  and  more  ramified  fjords,  then,  are  even 
more  effectual  salmon- traps  than  Puget  Sound,  for  by  the 
time  the  fish  that  have  escaped  netting  on  their  entry 
from  the  Atlantic  have  finished  their  researches,  they  too 
have  become  a  prey  to  the  snares  and  nets  laid  for  them 
in  other  parts  of  the  opening. 

For  mid-fjord  and  open-sea  fishing  the  Norwegians 
employ  the  same  kind  of  seine  as  that  used  in  the 
Columbia  River,  though  a  good  deal  smaller,  and  worked 
by  a  few  small  boats,  which  tow  the  gradually  closing 
net  into  the  shallows  for  cleaning. 

But  a  seine  is  a  valuable  article,  not  to  be  dragged 
haphazard  against  rocks  that,  in  less  than  a  minute, 

68 


Stereo  Copyright,  Underwood  &•  U. 


London  and  Ni-w  York 


SALMON-NETTING  IN  NORWAY 


This  huge  stand  is  fixed  on  the  shore  of  the  Sogne,  the  biggest  of  the 
Norwegian  fjords. 


SALMON-FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY 

would  tear  it  to  shreds ;  and  both  shores  of  the  Sogne 
Fjord  are  girt  with  such  rocks,  which  at  high  water  are 
treacherously  hidden ;  so  that  to  sweep  the  fish  ashore 
as  in  river  work  would  be  impossible.  Here,  then,  some 
other  contrivance  is  called  for,  and  the  Norwegians  supply 
the  deficiency  by  means  of  a  trap  peculiar  to  themselves. 
A  very  rough,  narrow-gangwayed  pier  is  built  out  from 
the  beach,  generally  inclining  upwards,  so  that  to  walk 
to  the  far  end  of  it  is  like  going  up  a  ladder.  The  gang- 
way ends  in  a  broad  platform,  and  from  one  of  the  two 
sides  a  net  can  be  lowered.  A  gill-net — weighted,  or  tied 
to  the  stanchions  that  support  the  platform — is  sunk 
from  one  of  the  sides,  its  lower  edge  reaching  to  the 
sand,  its  upper  covered  at  high  water,  but  visible  as  soon 
as  the  tide  has  run  out.  It  is  weighed  up  at  intervals 
and  cleared  from  the  platform  or  from  the  boats  below. 

While  we  are  in  the  neighbourhood,  we  must  take  a 
peep  at  the  salmon-fishery  as  worked  by  the  Lapps  and 
the  Finnish  peasant  fishermen. 

The  Lapps  use  spears ;  also  a  small  and  very  elementary 
seine,  and  do  their  fishing  from  tiny,  skin-covered  canoes. 
Before  the  boats  go  off,  the  men  keep  a  careful  eye  round 
for  the  sea-swallows,  or  the  "  luck-bringers,"  as  they  call 
them  ;  small  marine  birds  that,  for  some  reason  or  other, 
elect  to  follow  the  outward  or  inward  course  of  the  salmon, 
and  so  are  infallible  guides  to  the  fishermen.  Where 
they  fly  the  boats  follow ;  and  so  tame  are  the  birds, 
that  many  will  take  scraps  of  fish  from  the  men's  hands. 

The  Finns  go  in  for  trapping ;  making  a  form  of  weir 
which,  at  least  in  the  last  hundred  years,  has  altered  in 

69 


SALMON-FISHING  AS  AN   INDUSTRY 

no  particular,  for  the  traveller  Acerbi  describes  just  such 
a  contrivance,  writing  in  1801.  Across  the  mouths  of 
the  streams  and  small  rivers  they  erect  a  palisade,  extend- 
ing from  bank  to  bank,  leaving  only  a  small  opening. 
Between  the  posts,  bushes  and  branches  are  thrust  down, 
and  so  the  fish  in  their  inland  migration  are  forced  to 
pass  through  the  single  opening.  Beyond  it  is  a  three- 
sided  net  or  moored  seine,  the  middle  of  which  is 
elongated,  folded,  and  made  to  lie  flat.  At  intervals  of 
a  couple  of  hours  the  net  is  lifted  out  bodily  by  men 
standing  on  either  bank,  cleared,  and  put  back. 

We  must  now  notice  such  of  the  British  salmon-fishing 
as  does  not  come  within  the  scope  of  the  next  chapter. 

A  fish  at  once  so  valuable  and  so  plentiful  would,  if  left 
to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  public,  have  long  ago  been 
extinct  in  these  islands.  Only  legal  protection  could 
save  it ;  and  from  the  signing  of  Magna  Charta  to  the 
present  day,  Sovereigns,  Parliaments,  Committees,  and 
Commissions  have  been  busy  drawing  up  and  enforcing 
regulations  for  the  prevention  of  ruthless  and  indis- 
criminate salmon-taking.  Yet  in  spite  of  artificial  breed- 
ing, such  as  that  carried  on  in  the  Tay,  the  salmon  fishery 
has  decreased  in  recent  years,  partly  on  account  of  the 
fouling  of  waters  by  land  drainage  and  factories.  With- 
out going  into  tedious  details  it  is  sufficient  here  to  say 
that  the  law  as  it  stands  has  fixed  a  close  time  for  the 
fish,  has  forbidden  the  use  of  what  are  called  fixed  engines, 
i.e.  permanent  salmon-traps,  and  insists  upon  the  registra- 
tion of  all  nets. 

70 


SALMON-FISHING   AS  AN  INDUSTRY 

The  close  season,  whether  for  nets  or  rods,  varies  slightly 
in  different  parts  of  the  country;  but  for  nets  it  may 
never  be  less  than  154  days;  and  no  fresh  salmon  taken 
from  any  part  of  the  United  Kingdom  may  be  sold 
between  September  3  and  February  1,  and  none  exported 
between  September  3  and  April  30.  Heavy  penalties  are 
attached  to  the  taking  or  selling  of  salmon,  either  im- 
mediately before  or  immediately  after  spawning. 

For  the  further  protection  of  the  fish,  a  weekly  close 
time  has  been  settled  of  from  forty-two  to  forty-eight 
hours  of  each  week-end  in  England,  thirty-six  in  Scotland, 
and  forty-eight  in  Ireland. 

Another  legal  point  worth  noting  is  as  to  the  proprietor- 
ship of  the  fish.  In  England  they  are  common  property 
as  long  as  they  remain  in  the  sea,  and  while  in  the  rivers 
they  belong  to  the  great  landlords ;  but  in  Scotland  the 
sea-salmon,  found  between  the  shore  and  a  mile  beyond 
low-water  mark,  belong  to  the  Crown  or  those  who  hold 
from  the  Crown. 

The  North  Country  fishing  is  done  with  a  kind  of  seine 
called  a  sweep-net,  which  the  men  shoot  from  small  boats 
(cobles).  In  towing  ashore,  the  net  is  brought  in  half- 
moonshaped  instead  of  circular,  and  swiftly  instead  of 
gradually.  These  nets  are  the  only  ones  allowed  in 
estuaries,  but  others  are  used  for  shore-fishing  and  for 
English  and  Scotch  deep-water  work.  The  stake-net,  as 
it  is  called,  is  found  on  various  spots  on  the  coast  south  of 
the  Tweed,  and  comes  perilously  near  being  a  salmon-trap. 
Two  parallel  rows  of  stakes  covered  with  netting  are  placed 
between  the  high-  and  low-water  marks  in  such  a  manner 


SALMON-FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY 

as  to  serve  as  a  channel  up  which  the  fish  swim  with  the 
current  till  they  are  driven,  through  openings  at  the  end, 
into  a  "  court "  or  enclosed  net,  whence  there  is  no  escape. 

The  catching  done  in  deeper  water  is  by  stow-nets  or 
"  bags,"  which  are  sunk  from  smacks,  and  are  like  those 
which  some  of  the  Scotch  fishermen  use  in  the  estuaries 
for  mackerel,  etc.  In  shape  there  is  little  to  distinguish 
the  "bag"  from  the  ordinary  trawl-net;  it  has  a  beam 
as  described  in  Chapter  III,  and  is  shot  in  a  somewhat 
peculiar  manner.  When  the  boat  is  ready  to  drop  the 
net,  she  is  hove-to,  and  a  couple  of  bridles  which  are 
attached  to  the  mouth  of  the  net  then  have  their  free 
ends  fastened  to  the  anchor  which,  on  being  dropped, 
helps  to  sink  the  net,  and  eventually  moors  both  net  and 
boat.  In  this  way  the  mouth  of  the  net  is  held  com- 
fortably open  for  the  fish  to  swim  into ;  and,  as  has  been 
already  shown,  their  intelligence  is  seldom  equal  to  the 
task  of  showing  them  a  way  out  again. 

All  English  and  Irish  salmon-nets  are  taxed,  the  rates 
ranging  from  £3  to  £20 ;  in  Ireland  up  to  £30. 


72 


CHAPTER  VI 
FISHING   AS   A   SPORT 

Angling— Salmon-fishing— Tackle— Ireland  and  Norway — Pucatorfit, 
non  nascitur— Casting— A.  real  bite— A  long  spell  of  hard  work — 
•*  Sulking  "—Gaffing— Fishing  in  the  Jotunfeld— High  jumpers — 
To  America  for  sport— The  tarpon— Tarpon-tackle — A  nasty  sea 
— A  big  leap— Towed  along — Fairly  hooked— Sharks  ! — Other 
sport. 

ALTHOUGH  this  book  deals  chiefly  with  the  fisheries 
which   are   important    industries,   space   must    be 
found  for  a  few  pages  on  the  subject  of  fishing 
as  it  is  undertaken  by  amateurs. 

If  there  is  an  angling  that  is  the  lazy  man's  sport — an 
excuse  for  spending  tranquil  hours  in  pleasant  scenery — 
there  is  also  an  angling  that  requires  undivided  attention, 
perseverance,  skill,  endurance,  and  often  physical  strength, 
and  those  who  devote  themselves  to  it  may  justly  rank 
as  higher-grade  sportsmen,  the  equals  and  often  the 
superiors  of  the  deer-stalkers. 

Salmon-fishing  comes  under  the  second  class ;  in  fact 
it  stands  well  ahead  of  all  other  branches  of  angling. 
From  the  details  given  in  the  last  chapter  it  will  have 
been  seen  that  this  fish  spends  the  greater  part  of  its 
time  in  rivers,  and  that  much  of  that  time  is  taken  up 
with  spawning.  The  close  season  for  rod-and-line  salmon- 
fishing  does  not  begin  till  two  months  after  that  for 

73 


FISHING   AS   A   SPORT 

netting,  though  it  ends  at  the  same  date ;  ninety-two 
days  is  the  minimum.  As  many  salmon  do  not  spend 
more  than  two  or  three  months  out  of  the  twelve  in  the 
sea,  the  angler  has  about  half  the  year  wherein  to  pursue 
his  sport. 

Two  typical  salmon  countries  are  Ireland  and  Norway, 
though  their  rivers  have  little  in  common,  for  those  of 
Ireland  flow  through  a  country  that,  in  comparison  with 
Norway,  is  flat  and  even,  and  they  have  very  little  of  the 
mountain-torrent  about  them.  Norway,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  a  land  of  strong-current  rivers,  often  marked  by 
waterfalls  and  cascades,  where  only  the  strenuous  fisher 
will  dream  of  angling.  Scotland  as  a  salmon  country  has 
been  discussed  in  the  last  chapter;  for  sport  most  men 
prefer  it  to  Ireland. 

Salmon  tackle  varies  much,  according  to  the  use  that  is 
going  to  be  made  of  it.  Are  you  going  to  fish  from  a 
boat  on  a  lake,  or  from  the  bank  of  a  river ;  or  are  you 
prepared  to  don  thigh- boots  and  be  almost  washed  off 
your  feet  by  the  torrent,  and  possibly  get  a  box  on  the 
ears  from  a  jumping  salmon  ? 

The  rod  used  is  generally  seventeen  or  eighteen  feet 
long,  with  ashen  butt,  the  two  middle  joints  of  hickory, 
and  the  top  one  of  a  tough,  elastic  West  Indian  wood, 
commonly  known  as  lance-wood.  The  line,  which,  of 
course,  may  be  of  any  length,  is  made  of  specially  pre- 
pared oiled  silk,  or  of  a  mixture  of  silk  and  horse-hair ; 
the  casting-line — usually  about  nine  feet  long — is  of  twisted 
gut,  and  tapers  towards  the  end.  One  angler  will  carry 
fifty  yards  of  line,  another  a  hundred;  for  boat-fishing 

74 


SALMON-FISHING  FOR  PLEASURE  IN  A  HIGHLAND  RIVER 


FISHING   AS  A   SPORT 

most  men  will  take  a  couple  of  hundred.  The  same  with 
baits ;  will  you  have  a  fly — and,  if  so,  of  what  sort  ? — 
a  spinning-bait,  a  prawn,  a  minnow,  a  lob-worm,  or  a 
cockle  ?  Many  anglers  prefer  a  small,  sober- coloured  fly  ; 
but  in  the  Irish  rivers  you  are  almost  sure  to  find  a  large 
and  gaudy  red-cock  hackle,  ribbed  with  gold,  with  wings 
of  drake's,  woodcock's,  or  mallard's  feathers,  set  very  wide 
apart.  But  there  are  special  considerations  that,  in  the 
main,  determine  the  question  of  the  sort  of  fly  that  it  will 
be  best  to  pin  your  faith  to ;  the  time  of  year,  the  depth 
and  degree  of  clearness  of  the  water,  and  many  other 
varying  circumstances,  not  forgetting  individual  prefer- 
ences ;  every  man  who  has  fished  for  several  years  should 
be  the  best  judge  of  what  suits  him  personally. 

All  the  Irish  rivers  are  more  or  less  salmon-yielding ; 
so  are  all  the  fresh-water  loughs  that  are  the  source  or 
the  outlet  of  rivers — Neagh,  for  instance.  The  Shannon, 
which  is  so  fertile  in  salmon  as  almost  to  rival  some  of 
the  North  American  streams,  has  rapids  below  Lough 
Derg;  many  of  the  smaller  streams,  too,  have  their 
"salmon-leaps,"  enticing  enough  to  the  fisherman  who 
cannot  get  as  far  as  the  more  exciting  Scandinavian 
grounds.  The  fishing  in  both  countries  is  now  almost 
entirely  proprietary. 

A  successful  salmon-fisher  is  made,  not  born ;  nor  can 
he  become  one  by  reading  books  on  the  subject.  For  the 
beginner  who  has  grit  in  him  there  is  always  hope.  Let 
him  serve  his  apprenticeship  to  an  old  hand  and,  with 
a  little  common  observation  and  a  good  deal  of  patient 
practice,  the  learner  will  at  last  become  a  fisherman. 

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FISHING   AS   A   SPORT 

True,  the  talk  about  having  "  an  anglers  eye "  is  not  all 
cant ;  but  generally  the  man  who  is  observant  over  the 
things  of  everyday  life  will  be  so  over  his  sports ;  in- 
tuitive knowledge  alone  never  yet  caught  a  salmon, 
though  with  luck  added  it  might. 

The  complete  salmon-fisher  is  the  man  who  knows 
properly  where  and  how  to  throw  his  fly,  how  to  control 
it  when  it  is  in  the  river,  how  to  hook  the  fish  when  he 
comes  within  reach,  and  finally  how  to  manage  and  play 
him  till  he  is  landed  or  brought  within  gaffing  distance. 
In  throwing  the  fly,  accurate  judgment  of  distance  is 
very  necessary,  and  this  again  is  largely  a  question  of 
practice.  In  bank-fishing  the  angler,  holding  the  rod  in 
both  hands,  the  left  some  little  distance  above  the  win<ch, 
the  right  below  it,  carries  rod  and  line  in  an  easy,  gentle 
sweep  over  the  left  shoulder,  till  his  left  arm  is  raised  in 
a  line  with  his  body,  and  he  feels  that  the  line  is  stretch- 
ing behind  him  in  the  air ;  then,  as  though  he  were  going 
to  hit  something  with  his  rod,  he  brings  it  smartly  for- 
ward, and  this,  neatly  and  properly  done,  the  forward 
progress  of  the  rod  being  checked  at  the  right  moment, 
has  the  effect  of  dropping  the  gut-line  lightly  on  the 
water  with  the  fly  as  near  as  may  be  to  the  desired 
position.  If  he  happens  to  be  fishing  from  the  left  bank, 
the  positions  of  the  hand  and  body  as  just  given  will  be 
reversed. 

For  many  reasons  the  salmon-angler  will  fish  against 
the  current;  chief  among  these  being,  first,  that,  as  already 
stated,  the  fish  can  only  lie  with  their  heads  pointing  up 
the  stream,  and  therefore  cannot  see  the  angler  when  he 

76 


FISHING   AS   A   SPORT 

is  behind  them;  second,  the  salmon-fly,  being  usually 
large  and  heavy-winged,  would,  if  carried  along  by  the 
current,  topple  over  and  look  unnatural ;  whereas, 
properly  guided  up  stream,  it  deludes  the  fish  into  the 
belief  that  it  is  some  gaudy  creature  swimming  spas- 
modically against  the  tide.  Therefore,  the  moment  the 
fly  touches  the  water  it  is  pulled  round  without  delay  into 
the  line  of  the  current. 

Next,  the  fly  must  be  made  to  show  itself  to  its  best 
advantage  and  in  all  its  glory.  The  rod  is  gently  raised, 
and  the  fly,  rising  with  it,  has  its  possibly  ruffled  plumes 
smoothed  down  to  its  sides  by  the  pressure  of  the  water 
above  it ;  then,  lowering  the  rod  again  just  as  carefully, 
the  angler  sinks  his  fly  once  more ;  and  this  time  the 
water  resistance  being  under  it,  the  fibres  of  the  wings 
are  spread  open  in  a  natural  manner,  displaying  the 
brilliant  colouring  of  the  fly,  which  is  now  in  a  condition 
to  beguile  the  first  salmon  that  comes  within  sight  of  it. 

Henceforward  the  conscientious  angler  has  no  thought 
to  bestow  on  temperature  or  scenery  or  hunger  or  fatigue  ; 
eye  and  thought  are  both  riveted  on  the  graceful  silvery 
creature  that  is  following  the  fly.  He  has  heard — as 
who  has  not? — of  the  lucky  fisherman  who  once  took, 
with  small  trout  tackle,  a  salmon  in  the  Shannon  that 
weighed  over  forty-five  pounds,  and  that  required  five 
hours1  playing  before  it  was  exhausted.  There  are  salmon 
weighing  over  fifty  pounds  in  this  river  and,  by  the  help 
of  the  gods,  he  means  to  catch  one  of  them. 

Talking  of  weight,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the 
age  of  the  salmon  is  no  guarantee  for  its  size.  There  are 

77 


FISHING  AS   A   SPORT 

some  Irish  rivers  in  which  ten  pounds  is  a  good  weight 
for  the  adult  fish ;  there  are  others,  the  Shannon,  the 
Suir,  and  the  Blackwater,  for  example,  where  even  grilse 
attain  that  size.  The  weight  of  the  fish  depends  mainly 
on  the  length  of  time  that  he  is  content  to  remain  in  the 
sea,  and  on  the  sort  of  food  in  which  he  indulges  while 
there.  Undoubtedly  he  has  spells  of  greediness  come 
over  him  from  time  to  time,  but  he  does  not  always 
choose  the  most  "frame-forming"  food.  The  stomachs 
of  those  taken  from  the  sea  are  often  found  to  contain 
eels  and  other  fish,  though  those  of  fresh-water  salmon 
rarely  show  anything  but  digested  food,  which  seems  to 
point  to  the  fact  that,  while  in  the  rivers,  they  eat  more 
sparingly  and  at  more  lengthy  intervals. 

Now  let  us  suppose  that  a  salmon  has  taken  the  bait, 
for,  if  bent  on  it,  he  will  assuredly  have  it  sooner  or 
later.  Unlike  most  river  fish,  he  will  rise  over  and  over 
again  to  the  same  fly,  seldom  leaving  it  till  he  has  taken 
it ;  but,  if  he  should  happen  to  be  only  partially  hooked, 
the  angler  may  as  well  say  good-bye  to  him,  as  he  will 
scarcely  be  likely  to  venture  near  the  bait  a  second  time. 
As  soon  as  he  is  fairly  hooked,  the  difference  between 
the  experienced  hand  and  the  learner  shows  itself  very 
markedly ;  the  former  keeps  cool  and  watches  his  oppor- 
tunities, the  latter  will  probably  lose  his  head;  though 
this  unfortunate  condition  is  not  confined  to  the  be- 
ginner, for  some  tried  and  mighty  fishers  will  confess  to 
experiencing  a  sudden  fit  of  "nerves"  whenever  they 
hook  a  fish  of  any  size. 

As  soon  as  the  fish  has  taken  the  fly  the  angler's  first 

78 


FISHING   AS   A   SPORT 

care  is  to  see  that  he  is  properly  hooked,  and  then  to 
tire  him  out.  The  fisher  gives  him  a  minute  in  which  to 
swallow  the  fly  comfortably ;  and  then,  with  a  subtle 
twitch,  he  fixes  the  hook  firmly.  What  will  follow  is 
problematical.  The  fish,  at  the  first  touch  of  pain,  may 
double  himself  up  and  spring  into  the  air,  kicking  and 
plunging,  to  get  rid  of  his  tormentor ;  he  may  rush  about 
backwards  and  forwards  as  if  possessed,  not  knowing 
which  way  to  turn ;  again  he  may,  and  probably  will, 
dash  up  or  down  the  stream  for  all  he  is  worth ;  in  any 
case,  "give  him  plenty  of  line,""  say  the  authoritative 
anglers.  Whatever  course  his  unfortunate  victim  may 
choose  to  follow,  the  sportsman  has  now  a  good  hour's 
hard  work  before  him  if  the  catch  is  of  any  size ;  perhaps 
three  or  four  hours. 

His  excitement  must  be  tempered  by  watchfulness  and 
judgment  and  dogged  perseverance.  The  fish  is  darting 
up  or  down  the  river  at  lightning  speed,  and  the  sports- 
man, utterly  unable  to  control  it,  is  meekly  following. 
Suddenly,  perhaps,  it  turns  and  courses  at  a  similar  pace 
in  the  opposite  direction,  thinking  nothing  about  the 
costly  tackle  which  it  is  jeopardizing,  except  to  rid  itself 
of  it.  At  last  it  pulls  up  short;  it  has  found  a  pro- 
jecting bank  on  the  other  side  of  the  stream.  Here  it 
can  "  sulk "  at  its  leisure ;  and  it  does,  perhaps  for  an 
hour,  till  the  exasperated  fisher  begins  to  long  for  a  stout 
hempen  cord  with  which  to  haul  it  in,  hand-over-hand 
like  a  cod-fish.  Tugs  and  jerks  will  not  move  it ;  the 
only  sign  of  life  that  it  gives  is  an  occasional  start,  and 
an  unqualified  and  persistent  refusal  to  be  "  wound  up." 

79 


FISHING   AS   A   SPORT 

The  angler  begins  to  speculate ;  he  may  have  hooked 
the  traditional  anvil  or  ploughshare  (every  Irish  guide 
knows  a  man  who  once  landed  something  of  the  sort); 
what  is  far  more  reasonable  to  suppose  is  that  he  has 
hooked  a  powerful  and  wily  salmon  which,  unless  closely 
looked  after,  may  lie  still  till  it  has  chafed  the  gut-line 
through  against  the  stones.  Desperate  at  the  bare 
thought  of  losing  a  possible  forty-five  pounder,  he  nerves 
himself  once  more  to  the  effort  and,  this  time,  the  fish 
allows  itself  to  be  dislodged  and  drawn  into  mid-stream ; 
then,  with  new  life,  endeavours  to  spurt  off  up  the  river 
again.  But,  taking  in  the  line,  a  little  now  and  a  little 
then,  "putting  the  strain  on'1  whenever  possible,  the 
angler  at  last  brings  the  monster  within  reach  of  the  gaff 
— if  he  does  not  actually  land  the  catch,  as  his  sports- 
man's amour  propre  bids  him  at  least  try  to  do. 

Even  over  the  gaffing  there  will  often  be  a  keen 
struggle,  for  the  fish  has  a  trick  of  being  just  an  inch  or 
two  beyond  the  reach  of  the  hook,  and  the  hapless  keeper 
or  other  person  to  whom  falls  the  duty  of  manipulating 
it,  discovers  that  he  can  only  do  so  by  throwing  one  half 
of  his  body  over  the  stream  at  the  risk  of  finding  the 
other  half  over-balanced  by  it.  When  he  has  at  last 
succeeded  in  getting  the  gaff  under  the  fish,  he  strikes 
swiftly  up,  fixing  the  hook  behind  one  of  the  breast  fins, 
or,  if  possible,  under  the  gills ;  and  then,  by  means  of 
his  feet,  wriggles  back  and  back  till  he  and  his  struggling 
prey  roll  over  one  another  to  a  safe  part  of  the  bank,  as 
likely  as  not  entangling  themselves  in  the  angler's  line 
in  so  doing. 

80 


FISHING  AS   A   SPORT 

Hitherto  we  have  only  considered  the  fortunes  of  the 
man  who  fly-fishes  a  river  from  the  bank.  Many  sports- 
men would  consider  this  tame  work,  preferring  the  ex- 
citement of  wading  waist-deep  up  a  mountain  stream  in 
Norway  that  has  no  tow-path ;  in  the  rocky  beds  of  the 
Jotunfield  streams  or  lakes,  for  instance,  where  the  water 
is  walled  in  by  sharp  crags,  and  cut  off  from  the  rest  of 
the  world  by  snowy  mountain-peaks.  Such  beds  suit 
salmon  that  are  of  a  sulky  turn  of  mind ;  for  they  can 
lie  between  a  couple  of  large  stones,  or  in  an  unsuspected 
hollow  that  leads  abruptly  out  of  the  shallows,  and 
meditate  to  their  hearts'  content.  Nowhere,  in  fact,  if 
they  can  help  it,  will  these  fish  stop  to  rest  on  a  smooth, 
shallow  bottom,  any  more  than  they  will  remain  in  long, 
straggling  streams  that  begin  and  end  nowhere,  as  one 
may  say ;  a  short,  rapid,  broken-bedded  stream  leading  to  a 
lake,  or  not  far  from  the  sea,  is  an  ideal  ground  for  them. 

In  fishing  among  the  rocks  and  sunken  tree-roots,  many 
anglers  consider  a  mussel,  cockle,  or  prawn  a  very  killing 
bait.  An  unweighted  line  is  cast  into  the  meeting  point 
of  two  currents  formed  by  rocks  that  stand  opposite  each 
other,  or  into  the  shallows  near  a  hole,  and  is  allowed  to 
be  carried  by  the  force  of  the  water  among  the  stones  or 
over  where  the  salmon  lies  in  hiding.  In  all  probability 
the  fish  will  not  be  able  to  resist  the  temptation  long,  for 
the  angler  is  offering  it  the  kind  of  food  on  which  it  was 
wont  to  fatten  while  in  the  sea.  All  in  a  moment  the 
line  is  jerked  furiously  and  the  salmon  springs  with  all 
its  force  out  of  the  water,  drops  again,  and  dives  back 
among  the  hollows  or  stones.  At  such  a  time  it  behoves 
F  81 


FISHING  AS   A  SPORT 

the  sportsman  to  be  very  wide  awake  if  he  is  not  to  lose 
the  catch ;  he  must  sneak  every  half-inch  of  line  he  can, 
and  so  proportionately  reduce  the  chances  of  the  salmon's 
tumbling  across  the  slack  of  it  in  its  fall;  for  such  an 
accident  seldom  fails  to  jerk  the  prisoner  free  again  ;  in 
any  case,  if  it  jumps  up  repeatedly,  it  is  pretty  safe  sooner 
or  later  to  free  itself. 

But  with  all  its  changes  and  chances,  and  in  spite  of 
cold  unspeakable  and  wettings  that  suggest  rheumatic 
fever,  the  sportsman  to  whom  the  choice  is  open — Norway 
or  Britain — will  not  hesitate  to  decide  in  favour  of  the 
former. 

Salmon-fishing  is  a  sport  full  of  excitement,  but  many 
people  say  there  is  another  more  exciting  still.  Since 
facilities  for  quick  travel  have  increased,  sportsmen  have 
been  diligently  seizing  the  opportunity  of  fishing  or 
hunting  for  game  whose  habitat  is  so  far  removed  from 
their  own  homes  that  at  one  time  the  pursuit  of  it  by 
Englishmen  was  only  dreamt  of  when  they  happened  to 
be  "on  their  travels.1'  A  few  generations  back,  to  go 
fishing  in  Norway  or  Russia  was  looked  upon  as  pushing 
sport  to  the  limits  of  wicked  waste  of  time,  on  account 
of  the  distance ;  and  a  person  who  talked  of  going  even 
to  America  for  shooting,  would  have  been  regarded  as 
a  maniac.  But  all  that  is  changed,  and  now  the  man 
who  can  afford  the  requisite  time  and  money  is  allowed 
to  plan  a  fishing- trip  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  round 
about  Florida  Strait  without  having  his  sanity  called  in 
question  by  his  friends.  To  run  over  to  America  to  fish 

82 


FISHING   AS   A   SPORT 

for  the  flying  or  jumping  monsters  that  in  past  ages  fell 
to  the  harpoons  of  races  that  the  world  no  longer  knows, 
has  become  as  popular  an  amusement  as  an  Indian  tiger- 
shooting  holiday  was  to  our  fathers. 

Among  these  American  wonders  the  best  known  to 
twentieth-century  folk  is  the  tarpon,  a  salt-water  fish  at 
one  time  erroneously  called  the  Jew-fish.  (The  Jew,  it 
should  be  stated,  is  a  creature  much  longer  than  the 
tarpon,  and  often  three  or  four  times  as  heavy.)  He  is 
a  magnificent  blue  and  silver  monster,  a  close  relative 
of  the  herring ;  is  from  five  to  seven  feet  long,  and  may 
weigh  anything  from  one  to  two  hundred  pounds.  The 
body  is  covered  with  scales,  some  of  them  three  and  four 
inches  wide ;  the  back  fin  is  very  high,  with  a  filament 
behind,  the  eyes  and  mouth  very  large,  the  latter  oblique. 
As  food  the  flesh  is  of  doubtful  value. 

Like  the  salmon,  it  has  the  power  of  springing  out  of 
the  water  at  will,  though  its  method  of  doing  so  differs. 
In  fact,  it  is  often  included  among  the  flying-fish ;  fish, 
that  is,  that  on  account  of  the  extraordinary  length  of 
their  breast-fins,  are  able  to  leap  from  the  water  and  make 
some  show  of  supporting  themselves  in  mid-air  for  a  brief 
period.  If  the  tarpon  does  not  strictly  come  under  this 
zoological  species,  it  at  least  spends  its  days  in  the  com- 
pany of  fish  that  do ;  for  though  its  home  is  well  above 
the  Tropic  of  Cancer,  the  reader  will,  no  doubt,  remem- 
ber that  the  Gulf  Stream,  which  leaves  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  via  the  Strait  of  Florida,  gives  almost  a  tropical 
character  to  that  part  of  the  Atlantic  and  its  inmates ; 
for  the  temperature  of  the  water  at  the  surface  is  81°  F. 

83 


FISHING  AS   A  SPORT 

To  talk  of  catching  a  hundredweight  fish  with  rod  and 
line  sounds  rather  absurd,  till  we  come  to  look  closely  into 
the  sport.  The  tackle  required  is  a  stout  eight-foot  rod, 
a  line  made  of  linen,  from  one  to  two  hundred  yards  long, 
and  a  hook  baited  with  a  bit  of  fish.  Obviously  there  is 
no  scope  here  for  the  angler  who  wants  to  loaf  at  his  work. 
The  fishing  is  done  from  light  rowing-boats,  generally  at 
low  water,  and,  by  the  more  earnest  sportsman,  at  night, 
for  then  the  tarpon  more  readily  seizes  the  bait. 

The  season  is  a  short  one,  lasting  but  two  months 
(April  and  May).  Perhaps  there  is  no  reason  why  it 
should  not  begin  a  little  earlier,  but  after  May,  apart 
from  such  minor  inconveniences  as  mosquitoes,  sharks,  and 
excessive  heat,  tropical  cyclones  are  liable  to  come  and 
trouble  the  waters,  sending  heavy  storm-tides  ashore  and 
making  things  uncomfortable  even  for  large  ships.  At 
the  best  of  times  it  is  unwise  to  venture  far  in  a  boat 
without  a  guide  who  knows  the  current,  as  well  as  the  lie 
of  the  fish.  Some  men  risk  going  out  alone,  anchor  their 
boat  and  wait  for  a  possible  bite,  taking  their  chance  of 
what  may  happen  when  the  fish  begins  to  kick,  if  indeed 
they  ever  hook  one. 

Experienced  tarpon-anglers  maintain  that  there  is  little 
to  learn  in  the  sport ;  that  the  man  (by  the  way,  many 
ladies  go  tarpon-fishing  nowadays)  who  has  nerve  and 
muscle  and  some  notion  of  managing  his  winch,  possesses 
all  the  stock-in-trade  required.  And  sure  it  looks  easy 
enough ;  all  you  have  to  do  is  to  sit  on  a  thwart,  or  in  a 
chair,  with  the  butt  of  your  rod  supported  by  a  holder 
slung  from  your  belt.  At  least  that  is  the  first  part  of  the 

84 


FISHING  AS   A  SPORT 

programme;  in  the  second  you  may  get  a  bite.  When 
this  occurs  the  tarpon  does  not  leave  you  in  doubt  for  long ; 
for,  as  often  as  not,  as  soon  as  he  is  hooked  you  hear  a 
splash  and  a  rustle,  and  the  giant  springs  up  into  the  air 
to  a  height  of  eight  if  not  ten  feet,  shaking  and  clattering 
its  gills  as  though  with  fury,  jerking  with  all  the  force  of 
its  hundred  or  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  to  rid  itself  of 
the  hook ;  then,  before  you  are  quite  clear  as  to  what  will 
be  your — and  his — next  move,  falling  back  on  the  water 
with  noise  enough  to  deafen  one.  Did  you  ever  see,  and 
hear,  a  very  fat  swimmer  who  had  not  the  faintest  notion 
of  diving,  throw  himself  from  a  high  diving-board  ?  The 
tarpon's  drop  is  just  such  an  ear-splitting  crash,  and  woe 
to  the  oar  whereon  it  shall  fall,  or  the  boat  either,  for 
that  matter ;  for  if  an  eleven-stone  man  falls  into  a  light 
boat  from  a  height  of  ten  feet,  the  odds  are  in  favour  of  a 
breakage  or  a  swamp  ;  and  an  eleven-stone  tarpon,  though 
not  exactly  "  a  like  cause,"  will  probably  produce  a  like 
result. 

Night-time  may  be  better  for  the  sport,  but  the  person 
who  wants  to  get  a  good  insight  into  it,  and  who  has 
never  seen  the  marvels  of  that  quasi-tropical  sea,  will  go 
by  day,  taking  with  him  a  guide  who  knows  what  to  do 
with  a  pair  of  sculls,  and  who  will  keep  his  "  fare  "  as  far 
from  other  boats  as  is  convenient.  To  have  your  own 
fish,  or  one  that  is  jumping  for  refuge  from  submarine 
enemies,  drop  on  to  your  head  is  quite  bad  enough ;  you 
do  not  want  to  be  troubled  with  other  people's.  Perhaps 
your  first  cast  is  a  lucky  one ;  you  are  in  deep  water  with 
a  tide  that  is  beginning  to  run  in  smoothly  and  gently ; 


FISHING  AS  A  SPORT 

and  the  sudden,  rapid  rush  of  the  line  over  the  multiplier 
(a  winch  whose  inner  cylinder  revolves  three  or  four  times 
to  one  turn  of  the  handle)  tells  you  that  you  have  made  a 
strike,  even  if  the  fish  fails  to  jump.  Let  him  have  line — 
a  hundred  yards  if  he  wants  it ;  and  let  him  tow  you  as 
far  as  he  feels  inclined. 

Suddenly  he  makes  a  leap,  and  you  had  better  obey  to 
the  letter  the  guide's  injunction  to  "  hold  on  " ;  for,  when 
the  fish  kicks,  there  is  reasonable  probability  of  the  rod's 
being  unceremoniously  jerked  out  of  your  hands.  You 
have  no  time  to  notice  other  smaller  flying  fish  that 
whizz  past  your  ears;  someone  in  the  next  boat  has  just 
fired  a  gun,  and  you  do  not  even  speculate  as  to  whether 
you  were  the  target  or  no,  for  you  are  carried  away  by  ex- 
citement and  a  ten-stone  fish.  The  tarpon  drops  again, 
but  springs  up  once  more  almost  before  he  is  down, 
tugging  more  desperately  than  ever. 

This  time,  however,  he  does  not  come  up  unaccom- 
panied. What  are  those  things  bobbing  about  where  he 
has  just  left  the  surface  ?  Shark-snouts  ;  three  of  them  ! 
You  have  no  longer  any  need  to  wonder  at  that  gun-shot, 
and  at  present  you  have  not  time ;  you  cannot  even  stop 
to  weigh  your  own  chances  of  finding  yourself  in  the 
midst  of  those  vicious-looking  muzzles ;  for,  with  a  final, 
fruitless  jerk,  the  tarpon  signifies  his  acceptance  of  the 
inevitable;  drops,  reduces  his  speed,  and  allows  himself 
to  be  drawn  alongside  for  gaffing — for  only  an  experienced 
fisher  will  try  to  run  his  catch  ashore. 

Then,  when  the  excitement  is  all  over  and  you  have 
leisure  to  think  of  what  might  have  happened,  you 

86 


FISHING   AS   A   SPORT 

decide  not  to  put  off  your  sport  another  year  till  the 
end  of  the  season,  when  the  sharks  are  coming  close  in  to 
shore. 

Other  exciting  sport  in  this  neighbourhood  is  afforded 
to  anglers  by  Jew-fish,  king-fish,  gar-fish,  and  other 
strange  creatures  that  leap  or  fly ;  and,  to  harpooners,  by 
the  devil-fish,  or  whip-ray. 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE    COD-FISHERY  (I) 

The  Breton  "  Icelanders  "—Seeing  the  fleet  off— A  twelve-hundred 
mile  voyage  in  a  cockle-shell — Life  on  board — Iceland  in  sight — 
Cod-fishing — An  average  catch — A  big  catch  in  a  calm— Cleaning 
and  salting — Breaks  in  the  monotony — Homeward  bound. 

ONE  may  expect  to  see  the  cod  in  almost  any  part 
of  the  ocean ;  it  is  always  putting  in  an  appear- 
ance ;  we  find  it  in  the  trawl,  in  the  shrimp-net, 
even  in  the  oyster-dredge.  Perhaps  there  is  no  more 
popular  table  fish,  for  it  is  wholesome,  digestible,  satisfy- 
ing, and  usually  reasonable  in  price.  So  popular  is  it 
(even  apart  from  its  value  as  an  oil-producer),  that  few 
southern  countries  can  keep  their  markets  supplied  with- 
out going  further  afield  than  their  own  waters.  Our 
Scotch  and  East  Coast  cod-fisheries  are  by  no  means 
inconsiderable ;  yet  our  annual  importation  of  cod  is 
something  enormous. 

The  bulk  of  the  world's  supply  comes  from  (a)  the 
Iceland  Banks,  (b)  the  Newfoundland  Banks ;  and  it  is 
with  these  grounds  that  we  shall  specially  concern  our- 
selves in  this  and  the  next  chapter. 

How  is  it,  we  may  well  ask,  that,  after  so  many 
centuries  of  fishing,  the  cod  has  not  become  a  rarity  for 


THE   COD-FISHERY 

for  which  epicures  would  be  prepared  to  pay  fabulous 
prices?  For  a  thousand  years  the  industry  has  been 
pursued  pretty  regularly  off  Iceland;  for  four  hundred 
off  the  American  Banks ;  yet,  at  the  present  day,  the 
supply  is  most  likely  larger  than  it  has  ever  been ;  the 
fishery  giving  employment  to  150,000  vessels  and  700,000 
men. 

The  reason  is  that  the  cod  reproduces  its  species  at  a 
rate  that  is  out  of  all  proportion  to  that  of  most  other 
fish.  If  the  reader  will  bear  in  mind  that  one  roe 
contains  at  the  very  least  somewhere  about  six  million 
eggs,  he  will  see  that  there  is  nothing  particularly  out- 
rageous in  the  boast  made  by  an  old  French  fisherman  of 
having  caught  five  hundred  cod  with  hook  and  line  in  one 
day  of  ten  hours. 

The  fishery  off  the  Iceland  coast  is  carried  on  by  a  few 
Danish,  Norwegian,  and  British  crews,  but  mainly  by 
French,  the  season  lasting  all  the  summer  long.  The 
majority  of  the  French  boats  taking  part  in  the  trade 
are  from  Brittany — broad-beamed,  substantial-looking 
yawls,  manned  by  the  strongest  and  sturdiest  fellows  to  be 
found  in  the  country.  Brittany,  indeed,  has  its  special 
hereditary  Iceland  fleet ;  men  whose  fathers,  grandfathers, 
and  great  grandfathers  have,  like  themselves,  worked  on 
the  Banks  year  by  year  from  February  to  August  or 
September,  and  who,  from  boyhood  to  old  age,  have 
never  enjoyed  a  southern  summer. 

For  Brittany  is  a  district  of  granite  and  moorland, 
where  agricultural  labour  is  at  a  discount ;  and  from  time 
immemorial  the  inhabitants  have  been  obliged  to  expect 

89 


THE    COD-FISHERY 

their  harvest  from  the  sea  rather  than  from  the  land ; 
and  inasmuch  as  the  proceeds  of  the  sardine  and  herring 
fishery  are  insufficient  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  population, 
it  is  not  unnatural  that  the  bolder  fishermen — men  into 
whose  very  blood  the  sea  seems  to  have  worked  its  way — 
should  be  willing  to  risk  their  lives  in  one  of  the  most 
paying  branches  of  their  trade,  even  though  it  is  carried 
on  twelve  hundred  miles  away  from  home,  and  even 
though  that  particular  kind  of  fishing  is  attended  with 
greater  danger  than  any  other. 

Twelve  hundred  miles  of  the  Atlantic !  And  in  a  craft 
that,  by  the  side  of  a  steamer  (which  itself  requires  ten  or 
twelve  days  for  the  passage),  looks  like  a  toy  boat !  Yet 
the  light-hearted  Bretons  appear  to  see  little  to  fear  in 
the  venture.  In  some  cases  they  are  buoyed  up  with 
their  piety,  and  their  trust  in  the  Higher  Powers  ;  in 
others,  they  feel  secure  in  their  belief  in  some  little  pet 
superstition  of  their  own.  Doubtless  there  is  a  good 
deal  of  fiction  about  the  "  dangers  of  the  deep."  Perhaps 
most  of  us  have  a  very  exaggerated  idea  as  to  the 
number  of  seamen  who  are  drowned  in  the  course  of  a 
year ;  nor  is  it  to  be  denied  that  many  of  the  deaths 
which  do  occur  can  be  traced  to  carelessness  or  fool- 
hardiness  on  the  part  of  someone  or  other.  At  the  same 
time,  there  is  unquestionably  a  large  loss  of  life  every 
season,  and  no  fishermen  contribute  more  to  the  sad  list 
than  the  cod  crews. 

Before  the  Breton  fleet  starts,  the  crews  make  every 
effort  to  invoke  the  protection  of  Heaven.  If  a  boat  is 
going  out  for  the  first  time  it  must  be  solemnly  conse- 

90 


THE   COD-FISHERY 

crated  by  the  parish  priest.  The  smack,  decorated  and 
covered  with  sail-cloth  or  a  tarpaulin,  is  blessed  and 
sprinkled  with  holy  water  in  the  presence  of  the  armateur, 
i.e.  the  owner,  or  the  man  at  whose  expense  she  is  fitted 
out — and  of  the  crew ;  then  follows  the  ornamenting  of 
the  cabin  with  religious  and  other  pictures,  a  crucifix,  or 
an  image  of  La  Sainte  Vierge,  and — alack! — paper 
flowers.  This  little  function  is  followed  by  a  meal  of 
bread  and  jam,  cake,  and  wine;  and,  later,  by  what 
Englishmen  would  call  a  sing-song. 

The  final  preparations  for  departure  in  February  or 
March  are  picturesque  in  the  extreme,  and,  by  contrast, 
the  start  of  an  English  fleet  seems  prosaic  and  unroman- 
tic.  The  stores,  the  barrels  of  salt,  the  lines,  and  the 
handkerchief- wardrobes  have  all  been  taken  aboard ;  the 
boats  are  gay  with  flags  ;  the  tugs  are  lying  off  the  quay, 
waiting  to  tow  them  out  to  sea,  two,  three,  or  four  at 
a  time ;  and  the  men  are  now  only  waiting  to  receive  the 
Church's  benediction,  and  to  bid  farewell  to  the  relatives, 
friends,  and  sweethearts  who  have  flocked  down  to  the 
harbour.  From  a  little  temporary  altar  set  up  on  the 
quay,  the  priest,  preceded  by  enfants  de  chceur  bearing 
lighted  candles,  incense,  and  holy  water,  carries  the  Sacred 
Host  round  the  harbour ;  the  fleet  is  solemnly  blessed, 
good-byes  are  said,  and  the  boats  are  soon  off  on  their 
long  voyage. 

With  fair  weather,  the  "  Icelanders  "  have  two  periods 
of  comparative  leisure  to  look  forward  to ;  the  journey 
out  and  the  journey  home.  The  crew  consists  of  seven  or 
eight  hands,  and  an  Iceland  yawl  can  be  managed 


THE  COD-FISHERY 

moderately  comfortably  by  three  men  and  a  "  mousse,"  or 
cabin-boy ;  therefore  the  fishermen  can  take  "  turn  and 
turn  about.'1  The  spare  time  is  filled  up  with  gossip, 
draughts,  dominoes,  or  cards  ;  with  sorting  and  inspecting 
the  fishing-lines,  or  washing  and  mending  of  clothes. 
Laundry- work  aboard  is  a  very  simple  matter.  Stockings 
and  shirts  are  rubbed  and  wrung  in  a  bucket  of  water  and 
hung  on  the  boom  to  dry;  blouses  or  "jumpers11 — the 
short,  coarse  linen  dress  worn  over  the  jersey — are  spread 
out  on  deck,  liberally  soused  with  pails  of  water,  and 
scrubbed  with  the  deck-brush. 

The  days  pass  quite  quickly  enough,  each  seeming 
colder  than  the  one  before  as  the  vessel  gets  further 
north.  England,  Ireland,  and  Scotland  have  been  left 
behind  long  ago;  the  Faroe  Islands  are  passed  without 
even  being  sighted  ;  the  boat  has  come  within  the  region 
of  the  "midnight  sun."  Often  rain,  fog,  or  snow  en- 
velops each  smack,  perhaps  cutting  it  off  from  sight  of 
its  nearest  neighbours.  The  men  have  packed  away  their 
woollen  or  skin  caps  and  donned  their  sou1- westers — head- 
gear picturesque  enough  to  the  artist  and  the  landsman, 
but  abhorred  of  all  sailors,  for  that  the  heat  of  them 
makes  a  man  bald  before  his  time.  The  Bretons  have 
given  up  expecting  calm  weathes  for  the  next  month 
or  two ;  at  60.0  N.,  20.0  W.,  they  know  little  about 
smooth  seas;  the  boats  are  nearing  the  Iceland  and 
Greenland  Banks.  Away  to  the  east  a  few  Norwegian 
whalers  are  pitching  and  heeling ;  now  and  again,  from 
behind  or  in  front,  sounds  the  hoot  of  a  steamer,  bound 
from  Copenhagen,  Leith,  and  the  Faroes  for  Reikjavik  ; 

92 


THE   COD-FISHERY 

sometimes  a  hollow,  uncanny  shout  comes  across  the 
water  from  a  neighbouring  smack  :  "  Who  are  you  ? 
Is  that  the  Rose  ?  How  do  you  like  this,  mon  vieux  ?  " 

Suddenly,  perhaps,  the  mist  clears,  and  the  rocky, 
cheerless  coast  of  Iceland  comes  in  sight.  Bearing  north- 
west, the  boats  make  for  where  the  sea  seems  smoother, 
yet  is  bubbling  and  boiling  and  seething  with  white  foam. 
Now  the  lower  western  point  of  the  island  is  on  their 
right ;  if  the  air  were  a  little  clearer  the  outline  of  the 
nearest  of  the  hospitable  fjords,  whither  the  fishers  must 
retire  in  exceptionally  dangerous  weather,  would  be  visible ; 
as  it  is,  all  that  can  be  seen  is  the  lava  plain  south 
of  Reikjavik.  Further  still  to  westward,  the  little  corner 
peninsula  is  almost  out  of  sight  again ;  the  Banks  are 
reached  at  last — the  home,  for  the  next  five  months,  of 
the  cod-crews. 

There  is  bustle  enough  on  board  now :  sail  to  be  taken 
in,  salt-tubs  to  be  dragged  out  of  the  hold,  knives  to  be 
sharpened,  hooks  and  lines  to  pass  final  examination. 
To-morrow  fishing  will  begin. 

At  first  the  catches  seem  poor ;  either  the  season  has 
not  really  begun,  or  the  men  are  out  of  gear  and  have  not 
got  back  to  the  old  working  groove  yet.  Codding  is  not 
work  for  weaklings.  On  the  Iceland  Banks  the  muscular 
labour  is  even  greater  than  on  the  Grand  Banks,  where 
the  fishing  is  mainly  done  from  small  boats  ;  here  the  line 
must  be  hauled  up  every  time  on  to  the  deck  of  the  smack. 
A  cod  sometimes  measures  three  feet  from  tip  to  tail ; 
it  weighs  from  half  to  three-quarters  of  a  hundredweight 
— often  nearly  a  hundred  pounds.  Think  what  it  means 

93 


THE   COD-FISHERY 

to  haul  up  two  or  three  hundred  of  such  burdens  a  day ; 
or,  at  busy  times,  to  work  for  fifteen  hours  with  only 
a  short  break  for  dinner,  pulling  up,  on  an  average,  one 
fish  every  three  minutes !  Unless  unusually  stormy 
weather  forces  the  boats  to  seek  shelter  for  a  time  in  the 
natural  harbours  of  the  Breidifjord  or  the  Faxafjb'rd,  you 
may  say  that  the  fishing  never  stops  as  long  as  the  season 
lasts,  except  when  in  fairly  slack  times,  the  crew  meet 
over  the  cabin  fire  for  an  hour's  chat  and  smoke  before 
one  half  "  turns  in "  and  the  other  half  starts  on  the 
night  work. 

While  the  catches  do  not  rise  much  above  the  average, 
a  couple  of  men  can  be  spared  to  do  the  cleaning  and 
salting  as  the  fish  are  drawn  up.  Watch  the  fishers  at 
their  work.  The  main-sail  has  been  pulled  round  to  lee- 
ward, and  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  deck  are  four  line- 
men and  two  cleaners,  the  former  standing  about  ten  feet 
apart  in  order  to  avoid  fouling,  i.e.  getting  one  line 
entangled  with  another ;  the  latter  squatting  on  the  deck, 
waiting  for  the  others  to  give  them  something  to  do. 
That  "  something  "  will  soon  come.  The  long,  plummeted 
lines,  scarcely  the  thickness  of  a  blind-cord,  slip  merrily 
through  the  men's  fingers ;  at  last  one  slackens — it  has 
touched  bottom — then  a  second.  A  third  does  not  reach 
the  bottom  at  all ;  a  hungry  cod,  swimming  downwards 
from  a  little  below  mid-water,  has  spied  the  bait — prob- 
ably a  bit  of  cuttle-fish — and,  the  next  moment,  the 
fisherman  shouts  proudly :  "  Good ;  I've  got  the  first 
fish!" 

"  You  think  so  ?  "  asks  a  stronger,  older  man,  as  he  feels 

94 


THE   COD-FISHERY 

the  little  vibratory  "  nubbling  "  that  experience  has  taught 
him  is  a  bite.  With  a  loud  laugh,  he  begins  to  haul  in 
like  fury,  hand  over  hand,  the  sodden  line  falling  in  snaky, 
oval  coils  between  his  sea-booted  legs.  The  cleaners  lean 
over  the  side,  laughing,  too,  at  the  friendly  rivalry  between 
the  fishers,  and  watching  with  a  sort  of  gambler's  interest 
to  see  whose  fish  will  come  up  first. 

Plomb!  Splash!  The  stronger  man  has  won  after  all, 
though  he  had  to  pull  from  the  bottom.  Up  comes  a  cod 
as  big  round  as  his  thigh,  "  kicking "  and  struggling  and 
wriggling  as  it  falls  on  the  deck ;  and  before  the  hook  is 
disgorged  another,  equally  big,  lies  by  its  side;  and  in 
less  than  a  minute  a  couple  more  are  jerked  out  of  the 
water  and  left  near  them.  Down  go  all  four  lines  again, 
but  the  cleaners  calmly  go  on  finishing  their  pipes ;  they 
want  to  see  something  of  a  heap  before  they  begin  ;  hard 
work  will  come  quite  soon  enough  without  going  to  meet 
it.  The  minutes  drag  on  ;  the  four  fish  have  became 
eight,  and  the  eight  sixteen.  Some  are  lying  motionless, 
others  are  gasping  and  flapping  their  tails  as  if  in  feeble 
protest ;  poor  creatures,  their  flapping  days  are  nearly 
over. 

The  cleaners  have  to  bestir  themselves  now.  Near 
them  is  a  barrel  of  salt,  the  head  of  which  has  been 
knocked  in  ;  each  scoops  from  it  sufficient  to  make  a  good 
heap  which  he  deposits  at  his  side,  and  the  task  of  salting 
begins.  Every  fish  is  carefully  ripped  up,  gutted,  and 
well  coated  inside  and  out  with  salt ;  then  laid  out  flat, 
and  stacked  one  above  another  in  an  ever  increasing  heap. 
Presently  one  of  the  crew  will  come  along  with  cases,  into 

95 


THE   COD-FISHERY 

which  the  piles  of  fish  are  carefully  packed  with  yet  more 
salt,  and  all  will  be  safely  stowed  within  the  hold. 

By  mid-season  the  fish  have  increased  in  size  and  seem- 
ingly in  number.  Naturally  no  two  weeks'  catches  are 
alike.  In  most  fishing  fleets,  no  matter  of  what  sort,  you 
will  nearly  always  find  one  skipper  who  is  more  knowing, 
or  has  the  reputation  for  being  more  knowing,  than  his 
fellows.  "  Show  me  where  old  So-and-so  fishes,"  says  one 
of  the  crew,  "  and  I'll  tell  you  where  to  get  a  good  haul." 
Wherever  he  goes,  others  will  try  to  follow.  Some  of  the 
more  independent,  however,  are  content  to  roam  over  the 
otherwise  neglected  ground — and  as  often  as  not  it  is 
they  who  get  the  haul,  and  not  the  knowing  ones  or  their 
followers.  We  know,  of  course,  there  are  old  stagers  so 
shrewd  and  so  observant  that  they  know,  almost  literally, 
every  square  yard  of  the  ground ;  and  such  men  will  catch 
a  boat-load  while  others  get  nothing.  But  cod  are  not 
like  oysters  or  sponges ;  they  want  to  move  about,  and  at 
times  move  very  swifty ;  so  that  the  boat  that  toils  in 
vain  for  several  hours  may  at  any  moment  have  a  shoal 
of  fish  under  her,  so  eager  for  prey  that  they  could  almost 
be  caught  with  the  naked  hook. 

Once  in  a  way,  as  summer  advances,  the  sea  round  the 
Banks  condescends  to  lie  still  for  a  space.  The  wind  drops  ; 
there  is  a  dead  calm ;  the  sunlit  water  looks  as  if  it  could 
not  be  rough  if  it  tried,  and  grows  so  clear  that  you  can 
almost  see  to  the  bottom.  One  of  the  men  pauses  in  his 
fishing  to  jerk  a  remark  over  his  shoulder  to  the  skipper, 
who  has  deserted  his  useless  helm.  The  "  patron  "  looks 
over  the  bulwarks,  turns  away  again  rubbing  his  hands, 

96 


THE   COD-FISHERY 

and  shouts  to  the  two  or  three  lads  or  men  who  are 
resting  :  "  Now  then,  come  on  !  No  skulking  ;  it's  harvest- 
time  ! "  The  tired  fellows  know  what  is  meant,  and  every- 
one pulls  himself  together  with  a  good  will.  Ejacula- 
tions of  joy  or  surprise  escape  them  as  they  look  over 
the  gunwale  and  mechanically  uncoil  the  lines,  or  bait  the 
hooks.  For  down  below  are  thousands,  nay  millions,  of 
full-sized  cods,  with  steely  backs  and  silver  bellies,  dash- 
ing up  and  down  in  line,  or  lying  motionless  and  looking 
upwards  as  if  they  had  come  to  be  fed. 

There  is  no  talk  of  cleaning  or  salting  now ;  that 
must  all  be  done  afterwards.  Every  man  throws  in  his 
line,  knowing  that  long  before  the  hook  reaches  the  bottom 
he  will  feel  the  sudden  little  shock  that  announces  a 
capture  ;  and  this  must  go  on  hour  after  hour,  perhaps  all 
through  the  night,  in  spite  of  stiffening  muscles  and 
aching  backs.  At  last  the  shoal  thins  down ;  half  the 
crew  falls  out  and,  by  way  of  rest,  sets  to  work  on  the 
gigantic  mound  of  fish  ;  obliged  first  to  kneel,  then  stand, 
then  stoop,  in  order  to  keep  themselves  awake ; 

"  Achin'  for  an  hour's  sleep,  dozin'  off  between," 

as  Mr.  Kipling  hath  it.    Already  the  day  is  dawning,  not 

as  we  understand  dawn  in  England,  for  it  has  not  been 

really  dark  all  night ;   but  the  ghostly  yellow  light  is 

growing  of  a  whiter  shade.    Presently  the  sky  will  redden, 

the  dun-coloured  clouds  will  part,  and  it  will  be  morning. 

Meanwhile  the  wind  has  got  up;  the  halliards  rattle 

petulantly  and  there  is  a  mournful  creaking  and  sighing  in 

the  shrouds.    A  summer  storm  is  coming  on  ;  maybe  only 

G  97 


THE   COD-FISHERY 

a  squall ;  maybe  one  of  those  terrible  tempests  that, 
before  the  fleet  can  run  towards  Reikjavik,  will  have  put 
an  end  to  more  than  one  of  the  plucky  little  Breton 
yawls.  But,  be  it  squall  or  tempest,  it  will  interfere  with 
the  fishing  for  the  time  being,  so  it  is  no  wonder  that  the 
men  have  been  anxious  to  profit  by  the  recent  calm. 

There  is  another  aspect,  too,  of  that  calm  and  the 
ensuing  storm.  They  are  incidents — events  coming  in 
relief  of  what  would  be,  to  most  people,  a  dismal  same- 
ness. Even  a  fisherman  is  human  and  likes  a  change  at 
times  as  well  as  his  neighbours ;  and  a  lull,  or  a  storm,  or 
a  fog,  or  an  extra  large  or  small  catch  are  the  only  changes 
the  "  Islandais "  can  look  for,  except  the  periodical  visit 
of  a  Danish  or  French  steamboat,  which  brings  him  his 
letters  and  his  newspapers,  his  medicines,  tobacco,  and 
fresh  water. 

A  few  more  brief  calms,  another  fog  or  two — happily 
the  fog  dpes  not  interfere  much  with  the  fishing — and  the 
men  begin  to  count  the  days,  then  the  hours,  that  must 
elapse  before  they  start  for  home.  The  boats  that  have 
had  the  luckiest  season  are  the  first  to  go ;  some,  less 
fortunate,  stay  as  long  as  the  late  August  and  September 
squalls  will  allow  them.  Often  there  is  a  sort  of  under- 
stood race  for  home ;  for  the  boats  that  are  the  first  in 
will  get  the  best  market  for  their  fish.  Most  of  them  will 
probably  sail  straight  away  for  Bordeaux  and  the  neigh- 
bourhood, where  prices  may  be  better  than  in  the  large 
northern  towns,  buy  their  salt  for  the  coming  season  and 
then  turn  homewards,  each  member  of  the  crew  with 
perhaps  a  thousand  francs  (£40)  in  his  pocket,  his  share 

98 


THE   COD-FISHERY 

of  the  sale  of  the  fish.  Similar  ceremonies  to  those  which 
attended  his  going  out  are  being  prepared  for  him  at 
home ;  and  for  some  weeks  after  the  first  crew  has  landed, 
his  little  native  town  will  be  en  fete.  Then  for  a  few 
months  he  will  settle  down  to  the  more  peaceful  coast- 
fishing,  and  by  February  will  be  quite  ready  to  set  out 
again  on  just  such  a  voyage  as  the  last. 


CHAPTER   VIII 
THE   COD-FISHERY   (II) 

The  American  cod-fishery — The  Newfoundland  Banks— Dory  work — 
Hand-line  fishing— Drawbacks  to  it — French  trawling — No  piracy 
allowed— Pulling  up  the  trawl— Clearing  and  rebaiting— Cleaning 
and  drying — The  gill-net— Its  special  utility— Its  mechanism. 

NOW  as  to  the  American  cod-fishery,  an  industry 
far  more  important  and  extensive  than  that  dis- 
cussed in  the  last  chapter,  and  pursued  on  the 
largest  cod-grounds  in  the  world — the  Grand  Banks  of 
Newfoundland.     These,  forming  one  immense  submarine 
table-land,  lie  more  than  fifty  miles  to  the  south  of  Cape 
Race,  more   than   three   hundred   to  the   east  of  Cape 
Breton  Island,  and  are  covered  with  water  that  varies  in 
depth  from  ten  to  a  hundred  and  fifty  fathoms. 

Sealing,  the  industry  only  second  in  importance  to 
codding  in  Newfoundland,  finishes  about  the  middle  of 
April,  and  within  six  weeks  of  that  time  the  ground  is 
crowded  with  cod-crews,  drawn  from  almost  all  nations 
under  heaven.  Naturally  the  first  to  arrive  are  our  own 
hardy  colonials  from  various  parts  of  Canada,  with  a 
sprinkling  of  Frenchmen  from  Miquelon  and  St.  Pierre, 
— two  little  islands  belonging  to  France,  which  lie  a  few 
miles  north-west  of  the  Banks.  Before  June  is  far  ad- 

100 


THE   COD-FISHERY 

vanced,  these  have  been  joined  by  large  fleets  from  the 
United  States  and  even  from  France  and  Holland,  and 
for  the  next  five  months  these  men,  drawn  from  every- 
where, will  fish  together  more  or  less  amicably,  for  the 
Banks  are  a  sort  of  "No-man's  land,"  beyond  the  juris- 
diction of  either  Great  Britain  or  the  States. 

In  the  height  of  the  season  there  will  be  something  like 
seventy-five  thousand  vessels  on  the  grounds — not  includ- 
ing steam-tugs,  carriers,  and  the  like — of  from  50  to  200 
tons  burthen ;  many  of  them  schooners  (two-masters, 
with  square  fore-topsail  and  fore-top-gallant),  but  the 
majority  of  them  cutters  and  yawls.  Each  of  these 
vessels  carries  half  a  dozen  or  more  small  boats — dories, 
as  they  are  termed — from  which  most  of  the  fishing  will 
be  done.  And  therein  lies  the  danger  of  the  work  ;  for 
the  dories  are  often  obliged  to  travel  a  great  distance 
from  their  ship,  and  are  only  too  easily  swamped  through 
carelessness  in  overloading,  or  lost  in  the  darkness  or  the 
fog. 

The  most  popular  quarters  of  the  district  are  Flemish 
Cap,  Brown's  Bank,  and  St.  George's  Bank — the  last- 
named,  situated  in  the  far  south-east  corner  of  the  ground, 
producing  the  finest  cod-fish  in  the  world. 

Until  lately  two  methods  of  catching  were  in  vogue  ; 
by  hand-lines  and  by  the  French  trawl.  For  a  great 
number  of  years  the  second  system  struggled  hard  with 
the  first  and  older  plan,  and,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  last 
chapter,  many  French  crews  still  prefer  the  hand-line.  By 
the  time  French  trawling  had  gained  the  sway  among 
British  and  American  fishermen,  a  third  contrivance — the 

101 


THE   COD-FISHERY 

gill-net — had  arisen ;  and  a  few  of  its  advocates  main- 
tain that  in  course  of  time  it  will  completely  supersede 
line-fishing,  except  where  inshore  work  is  concerned ;  a 
statement  which  affords  great  amusement  to  the  older 
fishermen,  for  they  know  better. 

As  has  been  already  said,  the  Banks  hand-line  fishery 
differs  mainly  from  that  carried  on  by  the  "  Islandais  "  in 
that  it  does  not  usually  take  place  from  the  deck  of  the 
smack.  Each  member  of  the  crew  has  his  own  cock-boat 
or  dory  and,  having  sculled  himself  out  some  distance, 
with  his  tackle  and  his  bait-store,  throws  in  his  line.  From 
a  sportsman's  point  of  view,  what  could  be  finer?  The 
little  boat  is  being  tossed  in  any  and  every  direction ; 
often  the  fish  come  up  as  fast  as  ever  the  angler  can  haul 
them  in ;  often,  again,  there  is  the  increased  excitement 
of  irregular  bites,  when  our  man  will  catch  two  fish  in 
three  minutes,  and  then  has  to  wait  three  hours  before  he 
gets  another  bite ;  then  succeeds  again,  by  fits  and  starts, 
pulling  up  sometimes  one  per  minute,  sometimes  one 
per  hour.  Further  excitement  comes  at  the  moment  of 
"  landing  "  the  fish.  True,  a  cod  is  not  a  tarpon,  to  jump 
upon  you  unawares  or  pull  you  out  of  your  boat  or  tow 
you  along,  the  moment  he  is  hooked ;  but  he  is  a  heavy, 
muscular  beast,  all  the  same,  and  in  a  boat  that  was 
never  intended  to  hold  more  than  two  men,  you  can't 
"  wrastle "  with  a  thing  that  is  in  a  very  great  hurry  to 
get  away,  and  that  turns  the  scale  at  three-quarters  of  a 
hundredweight,  without  meeting  with  an  occasional 
upset. 

But  there  is  a  less  sporting  view  of  the  matter  to  be 

102 


THE    COD-FISHERY 

considered.  A  storm  rises  suddenly  just  when  the  boat 
is  well-nigh  full  of  fish — representing  the  whole  of  a 
man's  day's  work.  A  slight  slip,  or  stumble,  or  roll  on 
the  part  of  the  fisherman — -just  the  least  little  bit  of 
awkwardness  that,  in  a  somewhat  larger  craft,  would  pass 
unnoticed — and  the  hapless  dory  capsizes,  no  matter 
how  carefully  the  fish  have  been  stowed.  At  least  there 
is  a  day's  pay  thrown  away  and — God  help  the  poor 
boatman  if,  encumbered  as  he  is  by  oilskins  and  thigh- 
boots,  he  is  not  man  enough  to  reach  and  right  his  boat 
again ! 

Or  there  is  that  awful  fog  for  which  the  Banks  are 
celebrated,  caused,  so  the  geographers  tell  us,  by  the 
meeting  of  the  warm  water  of  the  Gulf  Stream  with  the 
current  which  is  called  the  Cold  Wall,  and  is  really  a 
stream  of  melted  Arctic  ice  brought  down  by  the 
Labrador  current.  The  unfortunate  dory-man  is  not  only 
cut  off  from  sight  of  everything,  but,  if  he  has  finished 
his  fishing,  will  soon  be  chilled  to  the  bone  through 
inaction ;  for  he  can  do  nothing  but  sit  still,  listening 
anxiously  to  the  sirens  and  hooters  of  larger  craft  that 
may  be  in  the  vicinity,  and  wait,  either  till  the  fog  lifts 
or  till  he  is  run  down  by  a  passing  steamer — unless  he 
has  the  luck  to  drift  towards  some  friendly  smack  that 
will  take  him  aboard. 

Yet,  despite  such  drawbacks  as  these,  it  is  easy  to  see 
why  hand-line  codding  dies  hard ;  take  the  year  through, 
an  individual  fisherman  can  earn  more  money  at  it  than 
by  the  other  means  mentioned,  though  owners  and 
master-men  may  gain  less ;  for  the  dory-man,  being  alone 

103 


THE   COD-FISHERY 

in  his  boat,  has  not  to  share  the  proceeds  of  his  catch 
with  a  companion. 

French  trawling,  on  the  other  hand,  requires  a  crew 
of  two;  one  to  attend  to  the  tackle,  the  other  to  scull 
and  "  make  himself  generally  useful."  In  many  respects 
it  is  only  a  development  of  the  old  Scotch  and  French 
long-line  fishing.  From  each  smack  about  half  a  do/en 
dories  go  off  in  the  morning ;  arrived  at  the  part  where 
the  trawls  are  set,  the  men  can  see  a  number  of  small 
tarred  kegs  floating,  that  look  like  the  ordinary  buoys 
to  which  boats  are  moored,  but  for  the  fact  that  each 
of  them  carries  a  tiny  flag  which  is  of  some  distinctive 
colour,  or  else  has  a  name  or  number  painted  on  it. 
With  the  same  keenness  of  perception  that  enables  them 
to  recognise  their  own  vessel  among  the  thousands  that 
drift  or  lie  at  anchor  on  the  Banks,  the  boatmen  quickly 
pick  out  certain  buoys  which  they  know  to  be  theirs. 

And  here  let  me  say  that,  among  the  fishermen  of 
civilised  countries,  there  is  surprisingly  little  piracy ;  i.e. 
interference  with,  or  robbery  of,  other  men's  tackle.  Of 
course  if  a  Frenchman  or  a  Yankee  "  goes  and  puts  "  his 
lobster-pots  on  a  Canadian  ground  he  must  take  his 
chance  of  the  trouble  that  ensues.  But,  generally  speak- 
ing, the  fisherman,  when  not  restrained  by  honesty  or 
fear  (and,  on  the  Grand  Banks,  to  pull  up  someone  else's 
gear  is  to  get  a  knife  into  your  ribs  sooner  or  later)  is 
held  back  from  this  deadly  sin  by  his  superstition  that 
if  he  steals  another  man's  catch  or  tackle  "  it  will  come 
home  to  him." 

To  return  to  our  dories — a  very  close  observer  might 

104 


THE   COD-FISHERY 

notice  that  the  buoys  go  in  pairs,  in  some  cases  each  two 
being  joined  by  a  thin  line,  and  the  distance  between 
the  two  being  anything  from  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards 
to  a  quarter  of  a  mile.  On  reaching  these  the  dories 
separate,  one  boat — or  perhaps  two — rowing  towards 
either  end  of  the  connecting  line ;  the  others  lying 
between,  and  waiting  to  bear  a  hand  as  soon  as  they 
are  wanted.  One  of  the  men  responsible  for  the  tackle 
now  leans  over  the  gunwale,  seizes  the  buoy  by  its  iron 
ring  and  drags  it  aboard.  It  may  now  be  seen  that,  from 
each  of  the  kegs — another  line — the  "buoy-line"" — runs 
downwards,  and  on  this  the  men  at  either  end  begin  to 
haul  for  all  they  are  worth,  as  though  they  were  weighing 
up  an  anchor.  In  point  of  fact,  that  is  just  what  they 
are  doing;  for  presently  the  intermediate  men  make  a 
grab  at  something  under  water  with  hands  outstretched 
and,  everyone  pulling  together,  up  comes  a  line  equal  in 
length  to  the  connecting  cord,  with  a  little  anchor 
fastened  to  each  end  of  it.  From  this  line,  branching 
in  all  directions,  are  others  only  a  few  feet  long,  each 
bearing  a  hook — from  two  to  three  hundred  of  them  in 
all ;  and  more  than  half  of  these  have  caught  a  cod. 
This  is  what  is  meant  by  French  trawling. 

Very  speedily  the  dorymen  release  the  fish,  packing  them 
neatly  away  in  their  boats.  Sometimes  there  will  be  more 
than  they  can  find  room  for,  and  these  must  either  be  left 
on  the  hooks  or  thrown  back  into  the  sea.  Another 
method  of  clearing  the  tackle  is,  as  in  the  seine-netting, 
to  tow  the  whole  catch  back  to  the  vessel.  The  coast 
fishermen  of  Miquelon  and  St.  Pierre  now  use  no  other 

105 


THE   COD-FISHERY 

system  than  the  French  trawl,  going  out  daily  from  the 
shore  to  tow  the  laden  tackle  home  and  to  set  fresh  lines. 
Many  of  the  Canadian  mainland  fishers  do  the  same ; 
and  their  inshore  catches  are  so  large  (although  the  cod 
are  comparatively  poor)  that  they  manage  to  keep  the 
whole  of  the  West  Indian  market  supplied. 

As  soon  as  the  hooks  are  cleared,  the  lines  have  to  be 
rebaited  and  sunk  again.  The  favourite  bait  on  the  New- 
foundland ground  is  what  the  Frenchmen  call  a  capelin — a 
kind  of  haddock  or  pigmy  cod.  As  river  anglers  are  well 
aware,  fixing  "live-bait"  is  not  a  task  to  be  approached 
lightly  or  carelessly ;  yet  the  speed  with  which  the  cod-men 
bait  hook  after  hook  is  simply  incredible.  When  the  task 
is  finished  the  main  line  of  the  trawl  has  a  most  weird 
appearance ;  fancy  a  cord,  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in 
length,  from  which,  at  intervals  of  about  five  feet,  hang 
short  ends  of  line,  each  terminating  in  a  fish  rather  smaller 
than  a  herring. 

With  very  great  care  the  trawl  is  sunk  again,  the 
weight  of  the  two  little  anchors  being  sufficient  to  carry 
it  to  the  bottom  ;  the  buoy-lines  are  made  fast  to  the  kegs 
again.  If  we  were  able  to  see  through  the  water  to  the 
bottom,  we  could  now  make  out  an  immense  four-sided 
linear  figure,  perpendicular  to  the  plane  of  the  sea ;  every- 
thing has  been  made  ready  once  more  for  a  new  catch.  If 
the  boats  are  very  heavily  burdened  they  will  now  row 
back  to  their  schooner  or  yawl  to  be  hauled  up  and  emptied 
before  proceeding  to  clear  the  next  trawl.  The  lines  just 
set  will  be  left  for  at  least  twelve  hours,  sometimes  even 
twenty-four,  before  they  are  pulled  up  again. 

106 


THE   COD-FISHERY 

The  cleaning  and  salting  processes  are  the  same,  no 
matter  what  means  of  catching  may  be  in  use.  As  soon 
as  the  evening -meal  on  the  smack  is  finished — a  meal 
usually  consisting  of  fish-pie  or  "  tinned  rations  "  with  tea, 
coffee,  or  cider — boards  are  laid  out  on  trestles  below 
decks,  thus  forming  a  long  table,  and  all  hands  take  a 
share  at  the  splitting  and  cleaning  of  the  day's  catch. 
Boats  coming  from  a  long  distance  will  stow  their  fish 
away  as  we  have  seen  the  Iceland  Bretons  do.  Those  that 
have  put  off  from  Newfoundland,  however,  will  either  run 
into  shore  periodically  with  their  cargo  or  else  hand  it 
over  to  carriers ;  for  the  Newfoundlanders  have  not  only 
to  salt,  but  also  to  dry  their  fish.  The  drying  is  a  labor- 
ious though  very  simple  process,  consisting  in  laying  the 
opened  cod  on  sloping  wooden  stages  in  the  sun.  If 
figures  and  statistics  were  not  rather  tedious,  the  reader 
might  be  interested  to  know  that  Newfoundland  alone 
exports  five  and  a  half  million  dollars'  worth  of  dried  cod 
every  year,  in  addition  to  cod-oil  to  the  value  of  about 
half  a  million  dollars. 

Now  for  the  gill-net.  I  have  left  it  till  last  because  it 
cannot  be  considered  as  a  feature  of  the  June  to  November 
season.  Generally  speaking,  it  does  not  come  into  use  till 
about  a  month  after  the  line-fishing  for  the  year  has 
finished.  The  cod,  though  one  of  the  easiest  fish  to  be 
taken  with  hook  and  line,  is  not  readily  caught  by  a  net, 
except  at  spawning  time  when  it  is  more  unobservant  and 
heedless  of  its  surroundings.  It  has  a  rooted  objection  to 
a  net,  and  a  countless  shoal  swimming  at  top  speed  would 
wheel  like  lightning  on  coming  within  a  few  feet  of  one. 

107 


THE   COD-FISHERY 

For  more  than  a  hundred  years  the  Canadian  fishermen 
have  firmly  believed  that,  during  the  breeding  season, 
the  cod  are  short-sighted.  They  maintain  that  when  the 
fish  go  down  and  bury  themselves  in  the  mud  at  spawning, 
Providence  supplies  them  with  a  special  film-like  growth 
which  covers  the  eyes,  thus  protecting  them  from  particles 
of  grit  and  sand  that  would  otherwise  blind  them ;  and 
this  membrane,  they  say,  does  not  disappear  till  about 
the  end  of  March.  Now,  as  from  November,  when  line- 
fishing  ends,  till  the  middle  of  March,  when  sealing 
begins,  was  a  slack  and  often  moneyless  time  for  the 
fishers,  some  of  them  began  to  think  how  it  could  be 
turned  to  account ;  how  fish,  which  would  not  be  per- 
suaded to  leave  the  bottom  where  they  had  a  plentiful 
supply  of  cockles  and  shrimps  for  food,  might  still  be 
ensnared  against  their  will.  The  gill-net  is  the  result. 

A  stranger,  sailing  over  the  ground  in  winter,  would 
assume  that  French  trawling  was  going  on  as  usual,  for 
the  flag-bearing  buoys  are  still  in  evidence ;  and,  if  he 
took  the  trouble  to  pull  one  out  of  the  water,  he  would 
find  a  buoy-line  running  down  from  it,  differing  from  the 
trawl-lines  only  in  being  considerably  stouter.  Moreover, 
if  he  took  a  dive  to  the  bottom,  he  would  see  that  the 
gear  is  held  down  by  a  couple  of  small  anchors,  just  as  in 
the  other  method.  Or,  again,  he  might  see  only  one  keg 
instead  of  two,  for  often  the  second  buoy-line  is  made  fast 
to  a  boat  lying  at  moorings. 

But  the  two  little  anchors  that  will  sink  a  set  of  lines 
are  not  sufficient  to  weight  this  sort  of  tackle,  and  to 
help  it  to  preserve  its  perpendicular  with  a  strong  current 

108 


THE   COD-FISHERY 

running ;  and  if  we  pulled  up  a  buoy-line,  we  should  see 
that  it  is  weighted  at  regular  intervals  by  three  large 
glass  balls.  At  the  lowest  of  these,  which  would  be 
nearly  down  to  mid-water,  the  single  line  becomes  two ; 
one  running  down  to  the  anchor,  at  an  obtuse  angle ;  the 
other  continuing  in  the  same  straight  line  with  the  buoy- 
rope  till  it  reaches  a  fourth  ball  which  hangs  within  a 
few  feet  of  the  bottom.  Forming  the  third  side  of  a 
triangle,  another  line  runs  upwards  from  the  anchor  to 
this  fourth  ball  and,  beyond  it,  to  a  fifth,  placed  at  the 
upper  corner  of  the  net.  This  fifth  one  is  the  first  of  a 
long  horizontal  row  which  is  threaded  upon  the  whole 
length  of  the  upper  edge  of  the  net,  whose  other  end 
meets  the  second  set  of  anchored  guide-lines  in  precisely 
the  same  manner  as  given  above.  The  net  thus  hangs 
perpendicularly,  with  but  little  freedom  to  move  backwards 
or  forwards,  its  lower  edge  lying  along  the  mud,  and 
kept  there  by  another  row  of  glass  balls,  each  of  which 
hangs  from  a  separate  short  cord  tied  to  the  bottom  edge 
of  the  net. 

One  might  think  that,  at  such  a  time  of  year,  the  net 
must  needs  lie  a  long  time  before  it  is  anything  like  full. 
On  the  contrary,  it  fills  very  speedily,  and  can  be  pulled 
up  any  time  within  twelve  or  fifteen  hours ;  for  the  fish 
will  come  out  from  the  mud  as  soon  as  they  are  hungry ; 
and,  considering  their  vast  numbers,  the  odds  are  that 
wherever  the  net  may  fall,  some  hundreds  of  them,  too 
occupied  with  family  cares  to  notice  where  they  are 
going,  are  bound  to  swim  into  the  snare  laid  for  them 
in  the  course  of  a  few  hours.  To  guard  against  taking 

109 


THE   COD-FISHERY 

young  fish,  the  meshes  of  the  net  are  so  wide  as  to  allow 
all  but  the  most  full-grown  to  pass  harmlessly  through 
them.  But  woe  betide  the  parent  fish  if  they  once  get 
their  heads  into  the  meshes  ;  by  the  time  the  cords  touch 
them  where  they  are  roundest  and  plumpest,  they  can  go 
no  further,  and  the  first  backward  movement  drives  the 
thread  well  under  both  gills,  and  then  all  hope  of  freedom 
is  gone  for  ever. 


no 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE   OYSTER 

Where  the  oyster  is,  and  is  not,  found— The  Essex  and  North  Kent 
"flats" — Development — Restocking  the  beds—"  Brood" — A  day 
of  a  dredger's  life— Description  of  the  dredge— Hauling  up— The 
oyster's  companions  in  the  dredge — Its  enemies — Measuring  up 
the  "wash" — The  collecting  boat— Other  kinds  of  oysters- 
Typhoid  ! 

IT  is  not  possible  to  say  for  how  many  centuries  the 
oyster-fishery  has  existed ;  before  the  Christian  era  had 
begun,  Roman  epicures  were  turning  up  their  noses  at 
Italian  oysters  because  those  from  Gaul  and  Britain  were 
finer  and  more  succulent.     Certainly  in  the  North  Sea,  the 
English  Channel,  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  and  various  parts  of 
the  Mediterranean,  dredging  in  one  form  or  other  has 
been  practised  from  time  immemorial. 

The  fishmonger's  price-list  leads  us  to  suppose  that 
oysters  are  found  in  Scotland,  Colchester,  Whitstable, 
Holland,  and  America  ;  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  they  are 
taken  in  very  great  numbers  almost  everywhere.  There 
are,  it  is  true,  some  few  parts  of  the  ocean  where  we 
might  dredge  for  ever  without  catching  one.  Professor 
Huxley  tells  us  the  reason,  viz.  they  cannot  live  and 
breed  in  water  containing  less  than  three  per  cent,  of 

in 


THE   OYSTER 

saline  constituents ;  and  he  quotes  the  Baltic,  where  the 
tasty  little  creatures  are  almost  unknown,  as  an  instance. 
But  equally  there  are  particular  quarters  of  the  ocean- 
bed — the  Bay  of  Arcachon,  for  example,  or  the  Essex 
and  North  Kent  "  flats  " — that  scientists  say  are  specially 
adapted  to  oyster-culture  ;  and,  as  the  last-named  is  the 
better-known  ground,  as  well  as  one  of  the  oldest  and 
most  important  in  the  world,  we  will  take  a  glance  at  the 
kind  of  work  that  goes  on  there. 

The  law  forbids  the  sale  of  English  and  Scotch  oysters 
between  the  middle  of  May  and  the  beginning  of  August, 
partly  to  prevent  undue  clearing  of  the  beds,  partly 
because  the  oyster  is  at  that  time  more  or  less  poisonous, 
— "  sick,"  as  the  fishermen  call  it ;  it  is  spawning.  The 
spawn,  or  "  fry,'1  falls  in  tiny  particles  on  the  stones, 
shells,  and  rubbish  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea  and  soon 
develops  into  small  white  protuberances  :  "  spat " ;  these 
in  their  turn  become  little  bivalves  which  are  found  lying 
independently,  or  with  one  shell  tightly  stuck  to  some 
foreign  body.  Such  baby  oysters  are  called  "  brood,"  and 
more  than  half  of  the  fisherman's  time  is  given  up  to 
collecting  them. 

Oysters  are  dearer  than  other  shell-fish  for  pretty  much 
the  same  reason  that  pheasants  are  dearer  than  rabbits ; 
they  are  a  proprietary  article,  and  their  rearing  is  a 
somewhat  expensive  matter.  The  beds  from  which  the 
fully  developed  fish  are  taken  belong  to  companies  or 
private  individuals,  and  are  severely  marked  off  by  buoys. 
But  such  preserves  are  very  small  when  compared  with 
the  immense  surrounding  space  on  which  anyone  may 

112 


THE   OYSTER 

fish ;  and  it  is  from  the  outside  spaces  that  millions  of 
brood  oysters  may  be  obtained. 

It  stands  to  reason,  with  the  vast  number  of  native 
oysters  that  are  eaten  or  exported  within  a  twelvemonth, 
that  the  beds  from  which  they  are  drawn  require  to  be 
continually  restocked ;  and  this  is  done  by  the  owners 
buying  of  the  fishermen  the  brood  which  they  have 
gathered  from  common  ground,  and  laying  it  down  in 
their  own  "  parks,"  where  it  will  gradually  come  to 
maturity. 

Brood-getting,  then,  is  the  chief  occupation  of  the 
fishermen  in  such  a  place  as  Whitstable  ;  supplying  not 
the  fish-market,  but  the  fish-breeder.  While  the  close 
season  is  on,  and  perhaps  two  or  three  days  a  week  during 
other  times,  the  dredgers  are  to  be  seen  going  off  in  their 
cutters  for  a  task  that  will  occupy  from  eight  to  twelve 
hours,  and  during  that  time  they  will  go  ten  and  even 
twenty  miles  away.  With  no  quay  and  no  tugs,  the 
smacks  are  dependent  on  the  tides  for  getting  out  to  sea ; 
thus,  if  the  tide  is  ebbing  at — say — one  in  the  morning, 
the  men  must  be  away  within  an  hour  or  so  of  that  time, 
though — as  in  winter — they  may  not  be  able  to  begin 
work  till  six  or  seven,  for  their  task  cannot  be  performed 
in  the  dark. 

Arrived  at  a  likely  spot,  a  trial  dredge  or  two  will  be 
thrown  over  and  left  to  trail  for  a  few  minutes  ;  then  pulled 
up  and  examined.  If  the  sample  be  promising,  work 
begins  at  once  ;  if  not,  up  goes  the  fore-sail  again  and  the 
smack  sails  away  towards  better  ground.  In  Chapter  II, 
for  the  sake  of  convenience  in  classification,  the  dredge, 
H  113 


THE   OYSTER 

(drag) — generally  pronounced  "  drudge  " — has  been  in- 
cluded under  the  head  of  nets ;  but  a  more  minute 
description  of  the  instrument  may  not  be  out  of  place 
here.  The  front  meshes,  we  saw,  are  composed  of  string, 
and  the  back  of  stout  wire.  The  wire  meshes  are  linked 
on  to  a  slip  of  iron  about  two  feet  long,  the  "  bit " ; 
while  those  at  the  front  are  lashed  by  a  cowhide  thong  to 
a  slip  of  wood  similar  in  si/e  to  the  bit,  the  "catch- 
stick  "  ;  and  at  either  end,  connecting  the  two,  is  a  "  side- 
stick,"  half  the  length  of  it.  Thus  we  have  a  deep  net 
with  a  rectangular  opening,  that  will  hold  as  much  as 
a  good-sized  portmanteau.  The  side-  and  catch-sticks  are 
but  loosely  hinged  at  their  ends,  so  that  the  front  and  the 
sides  of  the  mouth  are  comparatively  free  in  their  move- 
ments ;  but  each  end  of  the  bit  is  fixed  to  a  bar  of  iron  as 
thick  as  a  kitchen  poker  and  a  little  less  than  three  feet 
long.  These  two  bars,  or  "limbs,'"  bend  back  till  they 
meet  in  a  point,  two  and  a  half  feet  from  the  bit.  As 
stays  to  the  limbs  are  two  more  bars,  one  running  down 
from  the  meeting  point,  halving  the  angle,  till  it  joins 
another  at  right  angles,  which  connects  the  limbs  half 
a  foot  above  the  bit  and  parallel  to  it.  All  told,  then, 
you  have  an  iron  triangle,  bisected  from  apex  to  base, 
with  its  two  sides  produced  till  they  meet  a  second  base, 
the  bit.  At  its  apex  is  a  stout  iron  ring  through  which 
the  lowering  rope  is  tied,  and  below  this  is  a  projection, 
the  use  of  which  will  be  seen  directly. 

An  oyster-smack  crew  consists  of  three  or,  at  the 
most,  four  men.  As  soon  as  a  good  spot  has  been  found, 
the  boat  is  brought  round  to  the  wind  and  left  to  look 

114 


THE   OYSTER 

after  herself,  and  the  men  arrange  themselves  to  wind- 
ward, one  at  bow,  a  second  amidships,  and  a  third  near 
the  stern.  The  minutes  being  so  precious  to  the  fisher- 
men, everything  has  been  made  ready  while  the  boat 
was  still  travelling  ;  the  dredges  fastened  to  their  warps  ; 
a  little  wooden  bucket  placed  near  each  man  to  hold  the 
brood ;  and  no  time  is  wasted  now  in  throwing  in  the  six 
dredges,  two  to  each  man.  The  upper  end  of  every 
warp,  or  coil  of  rope,  is  secured  by  being  tied  to  a  stout 
block  which  lies  on  the  deck,  while,  to  prevent  more  rope 
being  paid  out  than  will  reach  to  the  bottom,  a  short 
bridle  or  regulating  cord  is  tied  from  a  cleat  inside  the 
bulwarks  to  the  part  of  the  warp  that  is  just  above 
water. 

Henceforward  everything  depends  on  the  wind ;  if  there 
is  not  enough  the  smack  will  not  move,  and  the  dredges 
will  be  scraping  thereabouts  the  same  spot  over  and  over 
again ;  if  too  much,  she  will  rock  and  drift  to  such  an 
extent  that  no  sooner  have  the  men  found  a  good  "pitch" 
than  they  arc  washed  away  from  it.  Give  them  a  light 
breeze  and  they  are  happy. 

The  pulling  up  and  landing  of  one  full  dredge  requires 
little  experience,  but  a  good  deal  of  breath  and  muscle ; 
the  pulling  up  of  twenty  or  thirty  per  hour  demands  con- 
siderable staying  power,  and  hands  as  hard  as  leather. 
The  rope,  a  good  inch  in  diameter,  must  be  hauled 
straight  up,  hand  over  hand ;  to  pause  for  breath  is  to 
risk  being  pulled  overboard,  or,  at  least,  to  have  the  rope 
jerked  out  of  the  hands  by  the  tremendous  weight  at  the 
end  of  it. 

"5 


THE   OYSTER 

When  at  last  the  top  ring  comes  above  water  the  worst 
of  the  strain  is  over;  to  the  beginner  it  has  seemed  as 
though  the  rope  would  never  end,  though  in  reality  the 
depth  is  nothing  as  compared  with  deep-water  fishing; 
the  "  flats "  of  the  Thames  estuary  are  not,  as  a  rule, 
covered  by  more  than  five  to  fifteen  fathoms  of  water, 
even  at  high  tide.  The  use  of  the  limbs  and  the  little 
iron  projection — the  "heel" — is  now  apparent.  The  final 
pull  has  brought  the  ring  well  above  the  bulwarks  ;  but 
it  goes  without  saying  that  weight  in  water  and  out  of  it 
are  two  widely  different  things  ;  out  of  the  water  a  loaded 
dredge  is  sometimes  so  heavy  that  only  a  strong  man  can 
lift  it ;  and  the  wet,  slippery,  sloping  deck  is  not  the 
standing-ground  that  even  he  would  choose  for  the  task. 
Instead,  therefore,  of  lifting  the  catch  bodily  over  the 
side,  the  fisherman  continues  to  haul  on  the  rope  till  the 
projecting  heel  hooks  itself  on  the  gunwale  and  he  is 
released  from  the  strain.  The  rest  is  a  mere  question  of 
knack  ;  seizing  the  ring,  and  using  the  limbs  as  a  lever,  he 
drags  the  iron  frame  over  till  the  net  rests  on  the  gun- 
wale, mouth  towards  the  deck  ;  and  by  a  deft  twist  of  the 
right  limb  empties  the  whole,  then  flings  the  dredge  back 
into  the  sea. 

And  what  a  collection  he  has  brought  up  from  Davy's 
locker !  Such  an  one  as  would  make  the  mouth  of  a 
naturalist  water  if  he  saw  it  for  the  first  time,  and  as 
might  incline  the  curio-hunter  to  poke  about  in  the  heap 
on  the  chance  of  finding  treasure.  A  complete  list  of 
the  objects,  other  than  young  oysters,  that  appear  in  the 
dredges  in  the  course  of  a  day  would  fill  a  page  of  this 

116 


THE   OYSTER 

book  ;  everything  from  dead  men's  bones  to  fossil  remains ; 
from  a  lump  of  rock  weighing  half  a  hundredweight  to  a 
silver  pencil-case ;  the  young,  and  sometimes  the  old,  of 
twenty  different  kinds  of  fish ;  mussels  and  whelks  by  the 
gallon ;  a  score  of  varieties  of  seaweed.  I  have  a  six- 
teenth-century tobacco-pipe  that  was  landed  in  this 
manner ;  and  myself  once  pulled  up  a  lively  sole  weigh- 
ing over  a  pound  and  a  half,  in  a  dredge. 

Before  we  discuss  the  brood  that  has  come  up,  we  must 
specially  notice  two  objects  that  have  not  been  included 
in  the  collection  outlined  above,  but  which  will  almost  in- 
variably be  found  wherever  there  are  oysters  ;  to  wit :  the 
"five-finger"  (star-fish)  and  the  dog-whelk.  These  are 
the  young  oyster's  deadly  enemies  against  which,  poor 
wretch,  he  is  powerless.  The  star-fish  grips  him  with  its 
terrible  arms  and  suckers,  and  eats  him  up,  shell  and  all. 
The  dog- whelk  goes  to  work  in  a  more  subtle  manner ; 
having  fastened  himself  on  to  the  shell,  he  patiently  bores 
a  hole  through  it  with  a  sort  of  drill  wherewith  Nature 
has  provided  his  mouth ;  alid,  having  effected  an  entry, 
gradually  demolishes  the  soft  body  within.  You  may  see 
scores  of  empty  brood  shells  neatly  perforated  in  this 
manner. 

Strangely  enough,  the  dredgers  wink  at  the  depreda- 
tions of  the  star-fish ;  if  they  do  not  want  to  take  a  bag- 
full  of  them  home  for  the  garden  (they  are  splendid 
manure  for  cabbages)  they  throw  them  back  unharmed 
into  the  sea.  Yet  not  many  dog-whelks  are  ever  allowed 
to  escape ;  the  heel  of  a  sea-boot  or  a  bang  with  a  stone 
speedily  cuts  short  their  days.  They  can  easily  be  dis- 

117 


THE   OYSTER 

tinguished  from  the  common  whelk  by  the  white  and 
purple  or  yellow  and  brown  shades  of  the  shell,  as  well 
as  by  the  lengthy  spines  with  which  the  latter  is  covered. 

From  such  a  motley  heap,  then,  the  brood  has  to  be 
sorted,  or  "  culled  " — for  the  Kent  fishermen  still  use  the 
good  old  word ;  and  here  is  labour  more  irksome  and,  in 
the  long  run,  more  tiring,  than  the  hauling  up ;  for  the 
men  are  down  on  their  knees,  or  bent  double  over  the 
heap,  gathering  up  the  little  shells  faster  than  the 
stranger  could  pick  them  out  with  his  eye.  Brood  shells 
are  of  a  pearly  white  till  they  are  about  a  year  old,  and 
at  that  age  their  size  is  anything  from  that  of  a  sixpence 
to  that  of  a  halfpenny ;  older  brood  are  of  a  delicate 
pink  on  the  round  valve,  and  brown  on  the  flat.  They 
may  be  said  to  increase  in  diameter  about  an  inch  each 
year,  up  to  the  age  of  three  ;  after  which  time  the  growth 
is  more  a  matter  of  the  shell's  thickening,  and  there  is 
not  necessarily  any  great  difference  in  circumference  be- 
tween a  three-year-old  oyster  and  a  fully  matured  one. 

In  a  very  few  minutes  each  dredger  has  singled  out 
from  his  heap  everything  that  he  wants  and  has  thrown 
it  into  his  bucket;  and  now,  with  a  couple  of  bits  of 
board  he  rakes  together  all  the  mass  of  weed,  stones,  and 
rubbish  preparatory  to  shooting  it  through  a  port-hole. 
Before  he  throws  the  heap  away  there  is  one  more  item 
of  it  that  it  will  not  be  going  away  from  our  subject 
to  glance  at ;  the  sea-urchin  or,  as  he  would  call  it,  the 
"burr,"  for  whose  creation  he  firmly  believes  the  Evil 
One  to  have  been  responsible.  Most  people  are  better 
acquainted  with  its  shell-like  skeleton  than  with  the 

118 


THE   OYSTER 

living  creature  itself;  it  is  a  greeny  red,  globular  object, 
any  size  from  that  of  a  marble  to  a  small  orange,  and 
looking  exactly  like  a  coiled-up  hedgehog.  According 
to  the  dredger  there  are  three  grounds  of  objection  to 
it ;  it  pricks  the  fingers  most  painfully ;  a  prick  from 
it  is  poisonous;  it  eats  the  oysters.  Nobody  who  has 
handled  one  will  cavil  at  the  first  statement ;  the  second 
is  nonsense ;  the  third  open  to  debate,  for  zoologists  seem 
to  agree  that  the  urchin  is  a  vegetable  feeder.  It  certainly 
has  a  trick  of  getting  in  the  way  of  the  fingers  while  the 
brood  is  being  culled,  and  a  pleasant  little  habit  of  stick- 
ing one  of  its  spines  between  the  nail  and  the  flesh — and 
leaving  it  there.  So  long  as  it  behaves,  the  dredger 
shoots  it  overboard  with  the  rest;  but  should  it  prick 
him,  the  bystander  will  see  that  the  savage  is  not 
altogether  dead  in  our  fishermen ;  for  the  offending  burr 
must  be  slowly  hammered  to  death  with  a  stone,  or  gently 
dropped  into  the  cabin  fire.  You  might  tell  the  dredger 
that  the  urchin  does  not  feel  anything,  has  no  evil  in- 
tentions, and  was  not  made  by  the  devil ;  and  being  the 
naturally  courteous  fellow  that  he  generally  is,  he  would 
not  contradict  you — till  you  were  out  of  hearing. 

Now  out  through  the  port-hole  are  swept  the  pipe-fishes 
and  sea-mice  and  the  half-dozen  or  more  varieties  of  crab 
— noticeably  the  ghastly  spider-crab — with  an  avalanche  of 
stones ;  and  the  fisher  hauls  up  his  second  dredge,  empties 
it,  throws  it  back,  and  sorts  as  before.  If  it  is  a  lucky 
day  with  him,  after  a  few  such  hauls  he  has  filled  his 
pail,  emptied  it  into  a  larger  one  and  started  to  fill  it 
again.  If  you  take  the  trouble  to  examine  the  contents 

119 


THE   OYSTER 

of  one  of  the  pails  you  will  find  a  curious  mixture; 
young  oysters  in  clusters  of  two  or  three ;  a  stone  or  an 
old  shell  with  as  many  as  a  dozen  little  ones  adhering 
to  it;  perhaps  a  few  oysters  that,  in  spite  of  the  con- 
tinuous dredging,  have  by  chance  been  allowed  to  come 
to  maturity  in  their  native  beds. 

On  a  busy  day  the  pails  are  soon  filled  again,  and  it 
becomes  necessary  to  pack  away  some  of  the  brood.  The 
men  gauge  it  very  carefully  before  they  empty  it  into 
sacks — it  will  be  measured  again  by  the  buyer,  but  they 
like  to  know  how  much  they  are  earning. 

"Two  wash  already!"  A  "wash"  is  five  gallons,  and 
will  be  bought  by  the  cultivator  for  four  shillings.  On 
two  wash,  then,  our  three  men  have  earned  two  shillings 
apiece,  and  the  boat  another  two  shillings  ;  if  the  owner 
is  the  skipper,  so  much  the  better  for  him. 

After  a  while  it  is  seen  that  the  supply  of  brood  is 
dwindling ;  the  patch,  over  which  the  dredges  are  being 
towed  by  the  gently  drifting  boat,  is  exhausted ;  or 
perhaps  only  mussels  are  coming  up — a  sure  sign  that 
there  is  little  brood  about.  Then  the  helm  is  unlashed, 
the  boat  puts  about,  and  makes  for  another  likely  spot. 
Here,  perhaps,  the  brood  is  more  plentiful  than  ever,  and 
very  soon  another  three  or  four  wash  are  put  into  the 
bags.  But  now  the  men  are  beginning  to  grumble ;  the 
wind  has  dropped,  and  the  boat  scarcely  moves  at  all, 
hampered  as  she  is  by  the  heavy  dredges.  There  is  just 
the  hope  that,  though  she  may  not  bear  six,  she  can  yet 
manage  three,  so  each  man  tries  working  with  but  one 
dredge.  The  plan  answers  perhaps,  but  the  crew  are  only 

120 


THE   OYSTER 

earning  half  as  much  as  they  otherwise  might  do.  And 
maybe  the  tide  has  been  flowing  for  some  time  already  ; 
they  have  but  an  hour  or  so  before  they  must  put 
back.  Happily  the  wind  is  getting  up  once  more,  and 
all  six  dredges  are  thrown  in  again.  The  men  may  well 
be  anxious  to  make  hay  while  the  sun  shines  ;  when  they 
are  not  after  brood  they  are  either  kept  ashore  by  un- 
favourable weather,  or  are  "oyster ing"  at  four-and- 
sixpence  a  day.  Oystering,  I  may  remark,  is  exactly  the 
same  process  as  brood-getting,  but  that  the  men  are  work- 
ing on  a  private  ground  and  are  rejecting  everything  but 
the  fish  that  are  ready  for  eating. 

At  length,  good  luck  or  bad,  they  dare  stay  no  longer  if 
they  are  to  get  in  before  the  tide  turns  again  ;  for  very 
likely  they  are  miles  away  from  home.  As  they  come  in 
sight  of  the  town  we  see  the  same  kind  of  thing  happening 
as  we  witnessed  with  the  trawlers  ;  two  of  the  men  jump  into 
the  little  boat,  the  sacks  of  brood  are  handed  out  to 
them  and  they  pull  rapidly  away  to  a  smack  labelled 
"  collecting-boat."  Round  this  are  scores  of  little  boats, 
their  crews  waiting  to  give  up  their  catches  and  have  them 
measured.  In  some  cases  however  the  catch  is  taken  ashore 
to  a  sorting  house.  The  brood  thus  procured  will  be  re- 
planted in  some  special  part  of  the  oyster  park,  dropped 
down  from  smacks  by  the  handful  as  if  one  were  sowing 
seeds. 

This  is  an  average  day  of  a  dredger's  life  in  good 
weather.  In  winter-time  he  must  necessarily  earn  but 
little ;  the  hours  of  daylight  are  very  limited ;  there  are 
fogs  about ;  and,  more,  if  a  frost  sets  in,  he  can  take  him- 

121 


THE   OYSTER 

self  home  as  soon  as  he  likes  and  stay  there  till  the  thaw 
comes ;  for  frost  kills  the  brood  the  moment  it  comes  in 
contact  with  it,  no  matter  how  quickly  the  catch  is  stowed 
away.  You  can  see  the  little  oysters  open  of  themselves 
as  soon  as  they  are  taken  out  of  the  water  on  a  frosty 
day. 

Hitherto  we  have  dealt  with  but  one  class  of  oyster, 
but  there  are  others  that  may  be  of  interest.  As 
youngsters,  most  of  us  have  been  told  by  our  travelled 
elders  that  oysters  grow  on  trees ;  and  we  have  had  the 
uncomfortable  feeling  that  we  were  being  "  chaffed.""  Yet 
we  live  to  find  out  that  in  some  parts  of  the  world,  such 
is  the  case  ;  in  the  West  Indies,  at  the  heads  of  inlets  and 
natural  harbours  where  the  mangrove  grows  freely  under 
water,  oysters  may  be  found  by  the  hundred,  clinging  to 
the  branches. 

There  is  an  interesting  point,  too,  relating  to  the  colour 
of  oysters ;  those  from  Spain  are  red ;  from  parts  of  the 
Adriatic,  brown  ;  from  the  Bay  of  Biscay  and  parts  of  the 
Channel,  green;  from  the  Red  Sea,  opaline  and  rain- 
bow coloured. 

There  is,  though  not  to  the  extent  that  once  prevailed, 
a  good  deal  of  exchange  in  the  matter  of  brood.  In  bad 
years — that  is  years  when  the  fall  of  "spat"  has  been 
poor — brood  has  been  brought  over  from  Canyale  or 
Dieppe  or  Arcachon,  and  planted  in  English  beds ; 
similarly,  though  the  Dutch  have  large  beds  off  Zealand, 
they  will  buy  young  oysters  of  English  fishermen  to  ripen 
in  the  grounds  at  Petten.  In  recent  years  the  Australian 
beds  have  proved  so  fruitful  that  an  attempt  has  been 

122 


THE   OYSTER 

made  to  transport  brood  oysters  to  Europe ;  but  so  far 
the  promoters  of  the  scheme  have  not  been  successful. 

Dredging  for  oysters,  and  from  boats,  is  not  always 
necessary ;  most  of  the  American  fish  are  picked  up  from 
the  beach  like  cockles.  At  Arcachon,  perhaps  the  finest 
natural  bed  in  the  world,  the  tide  goes  out  so  far  that 
what,  at  flood-tide,  is  a  large  bay,  becomes  at  low  water 
a  vast  sand-track,  intersected,  however,  by  narrow  streams 
from  two  to  seven  fathoms  deep.  At  the  bottom  of  these 
streams  lie  some  of  the  best  oysters,  and  dredging  can  be 
carried  on  from  land. 

The  Arcachon  fishermen  have  to  wage  war  against 
what  is  called  the  whelk-tingle,  as  do  ours  against  the 
dog- whelk ;  and  the  Americans  find  almost  as  great  a 
scourge  in  the  oyster-catcher  or  sea-pie,  a  stork-billed 
bird  that  eats  oysters  as  thrushes  eat  snails. 

One  more  word  about  the  British  oyster-fisherman. 
He  cannot  be  brought  to  believe  that  oysters  produce 
typhoid  fever,  and  doubtless  he  would  find  medical  men 
ready  to  back  him  up.  According  to  his  own  account  he 
has  seen  a  man's  head  swell  to  the  size  of  a  bushel-basket 
through  mussel-poisoning ;  he  has  had  his  own  hand  in  a 
sling  for  weeks,  through  being  pricked  by  a  burr ;  he  has 
seen  someone  else  helplessly  drunk,  merely  through  eating 
a  few  red  whelks ;  he  may  even  have  seen  the  sea-serpent ; 
but  never,  never  has  he  known  of  a  case  of  oyster-typhoid. 
And  surely  he  is  in  a  position  to  know  ! 


123 


CHAPTER   X 

UNITED   STATES   FISH   AND 
FISHERMEN 

The  States  fishermen  —  The  "  foreigners  "  —  The  spring  mackerel- 
fishing— The  "purse-seine" — Fishing  by  night— How  the  net  is 
cleared— Shore-weirs— Line-fishing  for  mackerel — The  herring— 
The  mullet— A  big  catch — The  "  red  snapper  " — Other  American 
fish. 

THE  life  of  the  American  mackerel  is  a  busy  but  not 
an  enviable  one,  for  it  is  passed  in  a  futile  effort  to 
find  a  resting-place  "between  the  devil  and  the 
deep  sea  " ;  in  other  words,  between  the  artfully  designed 
coast-traps  known  as  "shore-weirs,"  and  the  attacks  of 
the  sharks  and  blue-fish  that  lie  in  wait  for  him  as  soon 
as  he  flees  into  deep  water.  It  is  just  possible  that  he 
might  find  a  happy  mean,  if  it  were  not  for  a  third 
danger  that  pursues  him  in  his  flight  from  the  coast,  and  is 
waiting  to  meet  him  on  his  return  there  to  the  fishing-fleet. 
For,  all  the  way  down  the  Atlantic  coast  of  the  United 
States,  from  Maine  to  Louisiana,  are  fishing  stations, 
some  rivalling  in  importance  our  Lowestoft  or  Grimsby, 
and  catering  for  a  greater  population  and  a  far  wider 
area. 

The  States  fishermen  might  be  divided  into  two  classes  : 

124 


FISH   AND   FISHERMEN 

foreigners,  and  "  odd  hands."  In  a  new  country  one  does 
not  expect  to  see  a  fishing  race,  sprung  from  untold 
generations  of  sea-going  folk,  such  as  Britain,  Prance  or 
Denmark  can  show ;  and  but  for  the  immigration  of 
European  fishing  families,  one  might  seek  in  vain  for 
anything  like  a  hereditary  fleet.  But  when  English  and 
French,  Swedes  and  Portuguese  settled  along  the  east 
coast  of  North  America  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries,  attracted  by  the  tales  of  their  sailors  as  to  the 
prevalence  of  the  cod,  they  went  a  long  way  towards 
endowing  the  new  country  with  such  a  fleet  as  they  had 
been  accustomed  to  see  at  home.  On  Cape  Cod,  for 
instance,  there  is,  to  this  day,  a  complete  colony  of 
Portuguese  fishermen  who  still  retain  their  own  language 
and  customs.  All  these  different  settlers,  then,  with 
Lascars,  Coolies,  and  an  occasional  Chinaman,  make  up 
the  "  foreigners  " ;  while  the  "  odd  hands  "  are  landsmen 
— labourers,  negroes,  etc.,  or  their  descendants,  who  have 
drifted  towards  the  coast  in  search  of  work,  and  are 
looked  upon  with  a  certain  amount  of  contempt  by  the 
more  blue-blooded  fisher-folk. 

Such  of  these  men  as  are  not  engaged  on  the  Banks 
fishery,  may  be  found  during  March  and  April  fishing 
for  mackerel ;  in  the  late  autumn  and  winter  for  herring ; 
then,  till  mackerel-fishing  begins  again,  for  mullet.  Their 
ground  may  be  said  to  lie  anywhere  between  the  coast 
and  a  line  parallel  to  it,  fifty  miles  distant ;  and,  length- 
wise, between  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  Bay  of  Fundy. 
Further  north  they  dare  not  go  except  for  mackerel —the 
only  fish  which  they  are  allowed  to  take  from  British 

125 


UNITED   STATES 

waters — or  when  they  are  making  for  the  common  ground 
further  east. 

A  favourite  spot  for  the  spring  mackerel-fishing  is  off 
Cape  Hatteras,  where  the  water  reaches  a  remarkable 
depth ;  and  here  a  fleet  of  yawls,  and  even  schooners  and 
brigs,  is  to  be  seen  working  day  and  night — really  more 
night  than  day — as  long  as  the  shoals  of  mackerel  remain. 
A  large  vessel  is  necessary,  if  only  as  a  storehouse,  for 
the  catches  are  so  enormous  that  only  big  craft  could  find 
room  for  them. 

The  net  used  Is  a  development  of  the  old-fasioned  seine, 
probably  introduced  by  the  French  and  Portuguese 
emigres,  and  known  as  the  "  purse-seine " ;  it  requires 
considerable  depth  of  water  and,  like  the  trawl,  a  sandy 
or  shingly  bottom,  free  from  rocks.  As  a  rule  it  is  single, 
i.e.  a  plain  sheet  of  netting,  with  cords  at  top  and  bottom 
which  will  draw  it  together  in  the  form  of  a  bag ;  some- 
times, however,  it  is  pocket-shaped.  To  cause  it  to  hang 
perpendicularly,  the  upper  edge  is  buoyed  with  a  cork-line, 
while  the  lower  is  weighted  with  lead ;  it  can  either  be 
moored  to  a  couple  of  boats  or  anchored  buoys,  or  it  may 
be  towed  gently  between  two  or  more  boats. 

The  fact  that  mackerel  are  not  essentially  a  bottom  fish 
will  explain  why  the  work  is  more  easily  accomplished  in 
the  dark  than  by  daylight.  In  the  daytime  the  fish  are 
rather  shy  of  coming  near  the  surface,  with  the  result 
that  only  the  lower  meshes  are  to  be  relied  upon  as  long 
as  the  light  remains.  By  night  it  is  different ;  a  man 
standing  at  bow,  or  stationed  at  the  mast-head,  can  easily 
follow  the  movements  of  a  shoal,  which,  seeing  nothing  to 

126 


FISH   AND   FISHERMEN 

fear,  swim  hither  and  thither  among  the  fleet,  uncon- 
sciously betraying  their  whereabouts  by  the  phosphorescent 
track  they  leave  behind.  Following  such  a  track  with  his 
eye,  an  experienced  skipper  can  give  directions  to  the  men 
who  are  waiting  to  shoot  the  seine  from  the  small  boats, 
and  can  even  tell  when  the  net  is  in  danger  of  being  over- 
crowded. 

The  clearing  of  the  net  is  a  case  of  "  the  mountain's 
going  to  Mohammed  " ;  not  of  the  net's  being  brought  to 
the  ship,  but  the  reverse.  The  moment  the  seine  is  full, 
the  vessel  pulls  round  alongside  of  it ;  the  cords  are  drawn 
up  and  hitched  to  the  bulwarks,  so  that  the  whole  catch 
is  taken  in  tow ;  and  a  fresh  net  is  shot.  If  the  crew  are 
busy,  the  fish  caught  can  stay  where  they  are  till  morning ; 
then  they  are  baled  out  of  the  purse  at  intervals,  as 
occasion  offers,  and  stacked  below,  to  be  taken  ashore 
either  immediately  or  when  the  call-boat  comes  round. 
The  reason  why  the  net  is  not  hauled  bodily  on  deck,  as 
in  trawling,  is  pretty  obvious  when  we  bear  in  mind  that, 
at  one  shooting,  the  seine  is  sometimes  found  to  contain 
as  many  mackerel  as  will  fill  a  thousand  good-sized  barrels. 

But  what  is  the  result  of  such  enormous  catches  ?  Year 
by  year  the  mackerel-fleets  find  themselves  forced  to  go 
farther  and  farther  away  from  the  shore ;  for  the  spring 
fishing  disturbs  the  shoals  in  their  northward  migration, 
causing  them  thereby  to  take  a  wider  sweep  from  the  coast, 
so  that,  in  time  to  come,  mackerel-seining  must  become  as 
much  an  ocean -fishery  as  codding. 

The  shark  and  his  various  amiable  relatives  are  rarely 
the  fisherman's  allies ;  yet,  where  American  mackerel  are 

127 


UNITED   STATES 

concerned,  they  must  be  considered  as  such ;  for  one  of 
them  will  pursue  a  whole  shoal — swallowing  a  mouthful 
now  and  again  as  opportunity  arises — for  fifty  and  sixty 
miles,  coming  as  close  in  to  shore  as  he  dares.  It  is  then 
that  the  shore-weirs  mentioned  above  come  into  play. 
They  are  of  two  sorts:  shoal-(shallow)-water  weirs  and 
deep-water  weirs.  The  first  are  simple  enclosures  made  by 
walls  of  stakes,  bushes,  etc.,  into  which  the  fish  swim 
helter-skelter,  on  the  "  any  port  in  a  storm  "  principle, 
where  they  are  either  cut  off  from  retreat  by  a  sliding 
door  of  hurdles  as  soon  as  a  big  capture  is  made,  to  be 
left  high  and  dry  when  the  tide  goes  out ;  or  are  baled 
out  by  the  score  as  they  come  into  the  trap. 

The  deep-water  weir  is  considerably  less  primitive,  and 
is  composed  of  a  series  of  net  walls  cunningly  arranged 
so  that  entry  is  simple  enough,  but  exit — to  the  dull- 
witted  mackerel — a  matter  of  impossibility.  Parallel  to 
the  shore  is  one  long  sheet  or  wall  of  netting,  buoyed  and 
weighted  like  a  seine ;  from  one  end  of  this,  running  out 
into  the  sea  at  right-angles,  is  a  similar  wall,  from  a 
hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred  yards  long;  the 
"  leader,"  as  it  is  called.  At  the  other  end  of  the  first 
net  is  a  third  wall,  about  a  quarter  the  length  of  the 
leader  and  parallel  to  it,  at  the  end  of  which  is  yet 
another,  which  goes  more  than  half-way  towards  making 
the  fourth  side  of  a  square,  leaving,  however,  a  good 
wide  opening  for  the  fish  to  come  in  at.  Sometimes  the 
fourth  side  doubles  back,  parallel  to  the  leader,  and  has 
yet  another  net  perpendicular  to  it,  inside  the  square, 
making  the  beginning  of  a  sort  of  key-pattern  labyrinth. 

128 


FISH  AND   FISHERMEN 

When  a  shoal  of  mackerel  in  full  flight  from  a  shark 
encounters  the  "leader,11  it  hesitates,  wheels,  and  swims 
steadily  alongside  the  net  wall  till  it  is  caught  in  the  maze 
prepared  for  it.  But  shore- weirs,  take  them  how  you  may, 
are  even  more  destructive  to  the  fishery  than  the  purse- 
seine,  for  hundreds  of  thousands  of  mackerel  can  be  caught 
in  the  course  of  a  few  days ;  and  the  sooner  such  a  waste- 
ful method  is  entirely  abolished  the  better. 

There  is  one  more  way  in  which  the  mackerel  may  be 
caught — again  an  importation  from  Europe ;  that  is  by 
means  of  hook  and  line.  All  sorts  of  bait  have  been 
tried,  but  experienced  mackerel-anglers  say  that  none  is 
so  satisfactory  as  a  bit  of  scarlet  flannel,  cloth,  or  ribbon, 
tapering  downwards  to  a  point.  As  there  is  no  marine 
animal,  so  far  as  one  knows,  of  which  such  bait  could  be 
an  imitation,  it  may  be  assumed  that  this  is  yet  another 
instance  of  the  inquisitiveness  of  fish  upon  which  scientists 
have  so  often  remarked. 

Next  in  importance  to  the  mackerel,  where  the  States 
coast-fishery  is  concerned,  is  the  herring ;  and  the  catch- 
ing of  it  is  one  of  the  special  industries  of  the  shore 
people  of  Maine  and  Massachusetts;  but,  as  the  next 
chapter  deals  specially  with  this  fishery  as  carried  on  in 
Europe,  we  shall  here  only  touch  upon  such  points  as 
are  peculiar  to  the  American  branch  of  it.  Gill-nets, 
such  as  we  saw  used  on  the  Banks  for  cod,  are  frequently 
employed,  though  the  buyers  are  much  against  the  use 
of  them ;  for  they  say  that  the  redness  round  the  eyes 
of  herrings  is  caused  by  the  strangulating  effect  of  the 
i  129 


UNITED   STATES 

meshes ;  and  consequently  they  prefer  those  fish  that  have 
been  caught  in  weirs  or  purse-seines.  Weirs  are  very 
successful  in  late  autumn,  when  the  fish  come  close  in- 
shore to  spawn. 

The  more  distant  herring-fishery,  which  extends  as  far 
as  the  British  waters  round  New  Brunswick,  is  carried 
on  in  smacks,  and  principally  by  means  of  purse-seines. 
The  season  is  a  long  one,  lasting  at  least  three  months. 
Often  the  catching  is  done  in  exactly  the  same  way  as 
mackerel-seining,  the  full  net  being  towed  aft ;  but,  where 
small  purses  are  used,  the  catch  is  sometimes  hauled  up 
on  deck.  Collecting-boats  are  often  dispensed  with,  for 
many  smacks  carry  a  plentiful  supply  of  ice ;  and  the 
herring,  packed  carefully  in  this,  will  keep  good  and 
fresh  for  months  at  a  time;  other  boats  give  up  their 
catches  daily  to  a  steamer. 

Before  the  herring -fishery  has  ended  for  the  year, 
another  industry  begins  farther  south :  mulleting.  The 
great  mullet-ground  is  the  Cedar  Keys,  off  the  Florida 
coast,  and  the  season  lasts  from  the  beginning  of 
December  to  the  end  of  the  first  week  in  February. 
Gill-nets  and  even  trawls  are  used  for  these;  but  again 
neither  is  so  popular  as  the  purse-seine.  The  fish  taken 
average  two  and  a  half  pounds,  and  they  are  caught  in 
astonishing  profusion.  A  seine  worked  by  eight  men  has 
been  known  to  catch  ten  thousand  of  them  at  one  shoot- 
ing. Reckoning  at  the  rate  of  thirty  fish  to  a  cubit  foot, 
this  represents  a  solid  mass  measuring  about  seven  feet 
each  way,  and  weighing  over  eleven  tons. 

130 


FISH   AND   FISHERMEN 

Coming  a  little  further  south  and  then  sailing  west- 
wards into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  we  light  upon  another 
important  fishing-ground;  the  home  of  the  "red  snapper. " 
This  is  a  gorgeous  creature,  averaging  7  Ib.  in  weight, 
which  is  regarded  by  the  people  of  the  Southern  States 
as  a  great  delicacy.  It  is  found  in  depths  of  from  ten 
to  fifty  fathoms,  and  swims  over  a  bottom  that  is  every- 
where dotted  with  rocks  and  lumps  of  coral,  where  no 
fisherman  dare  dream  of  shooting  a  net. 

Snapper-catching  does  not  greatly  differ  from  cod  line- 
fishing.  Each  smack  is  manned  by  a  crew  of  seven  or 
eight  men,  who  go  fifty  miles  out  and  as  much  as  two 
hundred  and  fifty  along  the  shore.  On  reaching  a  favour- 
able spot  the  boat  is  either  anchored  or  brought  to  heave- 
to,  and  work  begins.  As  the  snapper  happens  to  be 
a  particularly  voracious  fish  (he  has  earned  his  name  from 
his  practice  of  snapping  at  everything  that  comes  within 
his  reach),  very  long  lines  are  not  necessary,  for  he  spends 
a  good  half  of  his  time  chasing  small  fish  that  swim  near 
the  surface.  Each  man's  line  is  furnished  with  two 
large,  thick  hooks  and  is  weighted  with  four  or  five 
pounds  of  lead;  and,  as  a  rule,  before  the  weight  has 
sunk  more  than  a  couple  of  fathoms,  one,  and  sometimes 
two  fish  have  swallowed  the  bait,  not  to  say  a  hook  as 
well.  Bait,  indeed,  is  a  secondary  matter;  hundreds  of 
snappers  are  caught  in  a  day  with  naked  hooks ;  a  pebble 
lowered  on  a  string  would  be  sufficient  tackle  to  draw 
them ;  it  might  even  be  worth  a  sportsman's  while  to  try 
them  with  an  alder-fly  or  a  cockchafer. 

A  snapper  boat  carries  no  ice,  no  salt,  and  has  no  deal- 


FISH   AND   FISHERMEN 

ings  with  steam  collectors.  Under  hatches  is  an  immense 
tank  filled  with  water,  and  the  fish,  having  been  carefully 
made  to  disgorge  the  hook,  are  put  into  it ;  the  tank  will 
hold  a  week's  catch  and,  at  the  end  of  that  time,  the  boat 
puts  back  to  shore,  and  the  fish  are  killed  by  a  slight  blow 
on  the  head  when  they  are  handed  out  to  the  buyers. 

Beside  those  already  mentioned  or  yet  to  be  discussed 
in  other  chapters,  the  Americans  have  many  fish  which 
are  unknown  in  our  own  waters ;  in  most  cases  their  names 
are  descriptive,  e.g.  the  horse-eyed  jack,  pork-fish,  hog-fish, 
goat-fish,  moon-fish,  etc.  Another  individual  that  almost 
calls  for  separate  mention  is  the  menhaden,  more  com- 
monly known  as  the  "  porgy,"  once  in  great  favour  at  the 
tables  of  the  poorer  classes  in  the  States.  This  fishery  is 
now  spoken  of  as  a  lost  art,  though  menhaden  make 
excellent  bait  for  cod,  and  have,  in  time  past,  been  so 
plentiful  as  to  be  netted  for  field-manure. 


132 


CHAFfER  XI 
THE   BRITISH   HERRING  FISHERY 

The  herring — The  lugger — Night- work — Signs  ! — **  Lythe  " — Shooting 
the  tackle — How  the  drift-net  is  worked — The  trial  shot — Shooting 
a  "fleet "—The  net  filling  —  Hauling  in  — The  first  strike— A 
second  shot — More  than  they  can  carry— "  Maze,"  "cran,"  and 
"  last  "—Getting  rid  of  the  catch. 

A)  a  popular  dish,  where  the  poorer  classes  through- 
out the  western  world  are  concerned,  the  herring  is 
hard  to  beat.     If  it  were  not  such  a  prolific — and 
consequently  cheap — fish,  it  would  no  doubt  find  favour 
even  in  the  eyes  of  wealthy  epicures ;  for,  in  all  its  forms, 
fresh,  salted,  kippered,  or  red,  it  is  more  appetising  and 
sustaining  than  many  of  the  more  expensive  fish. 

Herring  are  in  season  whenever  they  can  be  procured, 
which  is  at  almost  all  times  of  the  year ;  though  during 
the  first  three  months  they  are  not  at  their  best.  Roughly 
speaking,  from  June  to  October  is  the  season  for  the 
British  fishery. 

All  round  our  coast  are  herring  boats  of  some  sort  or 
other ;  but  the  important  fleets  hail  from  sundry  Scotch 
and  North  Country  ports ;  from  Yarmouth,  of  course ; 
from  Ireland  and  the  Isle  of  Man,  and  from  North  Devon. 
There  is  not  a  great  deal  of  difference  between  the  craft 
and  methods  in  use  in  these  various  districts ;  and  perhaps 

J33 


THE  BRITISH  HERRING  FISHERY 

the  only  distinction  between  a  herring-fisher  and  any 
other  is  that  the  former  grows  rich  more  quickly  and 
more  surely  than  his  less  favoured  brethren ;  for  where 
both  supply  and  demand  are  abundant  and  fairly  constant, 
there  money  must  be  made. 

The  boat  most  generally  employed  is  the  Scotch  or 
two-masted  lugger,  open  or  decked,  as  the  case  may  be ; 
more  often  the  latter.  The  luggers  found  on  the  coast  of 
Scotland  usually  have  a  little  cabin  forward,  but  the  rest 
of  tHe  vessel  open.  The  North  Country  boats  are  long 
and  narrow,  with  a  pointed  stern ;  the  foremast  is  placed 
as  near  as  possible  to  the  prow,  which  practice,  though  it 
may  render  her  awkward  and  sulky  when  sailing  against 
the  wind,  makes  a  very  fast  boat  of  her  with  the  wind 
behind  her.  The  vessels  in  the  west  and  south-west  are, 
as  a  rule,  broader  in  the  beam,  and  not  uniformly  so  fast. 
The  special  advantage  attaching  to  the  use  of  the  double 
lugger  is  that,  while  fishing  is  going  on,  the  foremast  can 
more  easily  be  stepped  (lowered)  than  could  the  main- 
mast of  a  cutter  or  yawl.  And  this  measure  is  very 
necessary  because,  when  once  the  nets  are  shot,  even 
though  there  be  no  sail  up,  the  least  wind  will  add  tre- 
mendously to  the  already  heavy  strain  on  the  tow-rope ; 
and  it  is  the  skilled  fisherman's  one  endeavour  to  keep 
such  strain  at  a  minimum. 

Herring-fishing  is  night-work,  and  the  darker  the  night 
the  better  the  men  like  it ;  for  the  fish  are  much  too 
wide  awake  to  run  their  heads  into  the  meshes  as  long 
as  these  are  visible.  To  say  that  the  boats  go  out  every 
night  in  the  season  would  be  to  imply  either  that  the 

134 


Photo,  Jenkins 


Loiuestoft 


FISHERMEN  LAYING-OUT  HERRINGS  FOR  SALE  AT  LOWESTOFT 


THE  BRITISH  HERRING  FISHERY 

fisherman  is  an  ass — and  he  is  not — or  that  luck  is  always 
with  the  fleet.  The  herring  fisherman,  especially  he  of 
the  North,  is  an  exceedingly  astute  person,  and  will  not 
risk  his  valuable  tackle  unless  there  is  reasonable  hope  of 
gaining  something  thereby.  True,  there  are  times  when 
he  comes  back  with  an  almost  empty  boat,  but  such 
a  calamity  is  more  often  than  not  due  to  some  unforeseen 
accident,  such  as  a  trawler's  having  split  up  a  shoal ;  and 
it  is  made  up  for  by  the  next  lucky  night.  He  has  very 
reliable  indications  of  a  shoal  being  in  the  vicinity — the 
systematic  flight  of  the  sea-birds,  a  peculiar  boiling  up  of 
the  sea  in  isolated  patches,  the  presence  of  porpoises  or  an 
occasional  whale  ;  perhaps  his  wife  or  children  have  spent 
half  the  day  watching  for  the  appearance  of  such  signs  ; 
or  he  has  done  well  at  a  certain  spot  on  the  previous 
night  and  means  to  try  his  luck  again  at  the  same  place  ; 
in  any  case  he  will  not  go  unless  there  is  something 
to  go  for. 

Sometimes  a  shoal  moves  from  district  to  district  with 
such  rapidity  that  only  the  boat  which  happens  to  be  on 
a  certain  spot  at  a  given  moment  stands  the  least  chance 
of  making  a  capture ;  other  craft  that  have  put  off  a 
little  later  will  come  up  to  find  that  the  coveted  shoal 
has  swept  onwards  from — say — the  Firth  of  Clyde,  south- 
wards ;  and  to-morrow  one  or  two  fortunate  Manx  or 
Irish  crews  will  have  netted  the  fish  that  to-day  have  cir- 
cumvented the  Scotchmen ;  what  remains  of  them  being, 
perhaps,  snapped  up  by  the  Devon  men  a  night  or 
two  later. 

When  the  "  signs  "  are  sufficiently  promising,  the  boats 


THE  BRITISH  HERRING  FISHERY 

put  off  as  near  sundown  as  tides  will  allow,  making  what 
sail  they  can ;  often  rowing  as  well,  if  current  or  wind 
be  adverse,  or  if  there  be  no  tug  handy.  At  this  time  of 
day  the  demeanour  of  the  men  is  markedly  the  reverse  of 
what  it  is  when  they  go  off  at  midnight  or  early  morning  ; 
as  then  their  spirits  and  hilarity  gradually  rise,  the 
farther  they  get  from  the  shore,  so  now  they  begin 
cheerily  and  noisily,  growing  more  silent  and  subdued  as 
the  darkness  gathers.  By  the  time  it  is  dark  not  a  voice 
will  raise  itself  above  a  whisper;  will  scarcely  utter  a 
single  sound  other  than  an  objurgation  on  the  moon  for 
shining,  or  on  a  juvenile  member  of  the  crew  for  snoring. 

A  faint  light  streams  down  on  the  deck  as  the  lamp  is 
run  up  the  mizzen-mast,  and  the  hands — six  or  seven — 
prepare  to  lower  sail  at  a  word  from  the  helmsman. 
That  personage  has  for  some  time  been  watching  the 
flight  and  occasional  downward  swoop  of  a  flock  of  sea- 
gulls; where  they  are  dropping,  fish  of  some  kind  or 
other  are  sure  to  be  near  the  surface.  As  the  gloom 
deepens,  another  and  more  certain  proof  of  the  presence 
of  a  shoal  appears,  for  sheets  and  streaks  of  phosphores- 
cent light  begin  to  show  themselves  on  the  surface ;  that 
means  that  the  fish  are  stirring,  and  in  very  considerable 
numbers.  Still  our  skipper  does  not  seem  to  excite  himself. 
Fish  are  there,  sure  enough;  but  they  may  not  be  the  fish 
that  he  is  seeking.  Suppose  the  luminous  flashes  should  be 
caused  merely  by  a  shoal  of  "  lythe " !  It  is  not  at  all 
unlikely. 

Lythe  are  fish  that  swim  in  shoals  off  the  Scotch  coast 
and  are  practically  useless  as  food.  The  oyster-dredger  is 

136 


THE  BRITISH  HERRING  FISHERY 

not  alone  in  holding  heterodox  opinions  on  the  subject  of 
creation ;  for  the  Scotch  herring-fisher  devoutly  believes 
that  the  foul  fiend  created  the  lythe  and  invented  the 
trawl-net — the  one  to  give  occasion  for  many  disappoint- 
ments and  much  consequent  swearing ;  the  other  to  drive 
away  and  break  up  the  shoals  of  herrings  which  otherwise 
would  swim  obligingly  towards  the  net  spread  for  them. 

As  the  lugger  draws  near  to  the  first  of  the  phosphor- 
escent splashes,  a  whispered  word  goes  round ;  the  skipper 
means  to  shoot  a  trial  net,  and  we  shall  have  an  oppor- 
tunity of  seeing  how  "  drift "  tackle  is  worked.  (Some  of 
the  more  up-to-date  men  use  a  trawl-net  or  purse-seine  for 
herring.)  The  drift-nets  are  lying  amidships,  carefully 
coiled  up ;  each  about  fifty  feet  long  and  from  nine  to 
twelve  deep,  and  as  innocent  of  pockets,  purses,  or  folds  as 
a  tennis-net ;  the  meshes,  which  go  about  thirty  to  the 
yard,  will  do  all  the  work  of  themselves.  The  prudent 
skipper  is  determined  not  to  act  rashly;  the  depth  of 
water  here  is  not  much  more  than  four  fathoms,  and  there 
are  gigantic  jagged  rocks  about. 

"  Try  three,  first,"  he  mutters. 

A  pull  at  the  helm  throws  the  boat  round  in  order 
that  the  gear  may  be  shot  at  the  proper  angle,  i.e.  across 
the  current,  so  that  the  shoals  will  strike  it  in  their  course 
up  or  down ;  and  some  of  the  hands  stand  by  to  pay  out 
the  first  net.  As  it  touches  the  water  the  tendency  of 
the  heavy  twine  meshes  is  to  sink,  even  if  the  lower  edge 
be  not  weighted  with  lead. 

"  Let  her  go ;  mind  the  corks,  and  easy  with  that  foot- 
rope."" 

137 


THE  BRITISH  HERRING  FISHERY 

The  first  thing  that  has  touched  the  water  is  a  good- 
sized  bladder,  which  the  waves  toss  up  and  down  like  a 
feather;  this  is  tied  to  the  end  of  a  stout  rope  which 
forms  the  upper  edge  of  the  net.  As  the  meshes  dis- 
appear we  can  see  that  the  net  will  not  be  allowed  to 
sink  to  the  bottom,  for,  along  the  line  that  ends  in  the 
bladder,  is  an  array  of  lumps  of  cork,  which,  with  the 
bladders,  will  keep  the  upper  edge — or  "  back  " — on  the 
surface,  while  the  net  itself  hangs  perpendicularly.  As 
the  cork  line  comes  to  an  end  we  see  another  bladder,  and 
beyond  it  enough  rope  to  connect  up  the  beginning  of 
the  second  net.  This  is  quickly  joined  on  and  paid  out, 
and  then  the  third.  The  trial  net  has  been  shot. 

Meanwhile  one  of  the  crew  has  been  engaged  with 
what  is  termed  the  foot-rope  or  foot-line,  a  strong  cord 
independent  of  the  cork  line,  fastened  to  the  "  back "  of 
each  of  the  nets  by  a  connecting  cord,  and  so  much 
longer  than  the  cork-line  that,  when  the  nets  are  all  shot, 
it  sinks  well  below  the  under  edge  of  them.  It  is  on  this 
rope  that  much  of  the  strain  of  hauling-in  will  come ; 
moreover,  should  the  cork-line  be  broken  by  a  passing 
vessel,  as  not  infrequently  happens,  everything  would 
depend  upon  it ;  therefore  it  must  be  kept  safely  out  of 
the  way  of  accidents.  The  ends  of  the  lines  are  made 
fast  to  a  tow-rope,  which  can  be  lengthened  or  shortened 
according  as  the  boat  wants  to  ride  close  to  or  away  from 
her  nets;  and  the  tackle  is  all  ready  for  a  strike,  or 
catch. 

Now  the  foremast,  taller  considerably  than  the  mizzen, 
has  to  be  stepped ;  sails  and  ropes  are  hauled  down  and 


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THE  BRITISH  HERRING  FISHERY 

the  mast  is  gently  lowered  backwards  till  it  lies  like  a 
dividing-line  along  the  middle  of  the  vessel.  At  present 
nothing  more  can  be  done,  and  the  men  adjourn  to  the 
cabin-stove,  or  huddle  round  the  fire-bucket  if  there  be 
no  cabin,  and  smoke  their  pipes  or  eat  their  supper  in 
dead  silence.  Boat  and  nets  are  drifting,  and,  so  long  as 
they  drift  away  from  the  rock-bed,  the  skipper  does  not 
worry  himself ;  he  can  keep  a  certain  amount  of  control 
over  the  vessel  with  the  rudder,  and,  if  he  considers  it 
necessary,  he  has  kept  up  his  mizzen-sail  in  order  to  hold 
her  nose  to  the  wind. 

Presently  he  gives  a  little  chuckle  of  satisfaction ;  the 
gleams  and  flashes  in  the  water  are  broadening;  the 
surface  is  bubbling  and  frothing  in  places ;  here  and  there 
the  flashes  break  up  from  time  to  time  into  innumerable 
points  of  light ;  and  little  clucking  sounds  are  heard, 
like  the  popping  of  corks  at  a  distance,  or  the  fall  of 
hailstones  on  a  pond.  Shall  he  risk  putting  out  more 
nets  ?  By  this  time  they  must  have  drifted  to  a  safe 
depth  away  from  the  sharp  rocks  that  would  make  havoc 
of  the  gear.  Why  should  he  have  only  three  when  the 
boat  will  stand  a  dozen  or  more  ? 

"Hullo!  Blue  light  to  leVard !  May  happen  the 
Ar gyle  \  made  a  strike,"  says  one  of  the  men ;  and  every- 
one looks  in  the  direction  indicated,  where,  among  the 
sparse  train  or  group  of  yellow  mast-head  lights,  one  blue 
flame  stands  conspicuous. 

The  skipper  still  watches  the  little  islands  of  foam, 
making  up  his  mind  that  he  too  will  soon  be  in  a  position 
to  run  up  a  blue  light,  and  gives  the  word  to  haul  in  the 

139 


THE  BRITISH  HERRING  FISHERY 

nearest  net  for  examination.  The  warp  comes  in  so 
easily  that  a  stranger  to  the  work  would  conclude  that 
nothing  has  been  done  ;  surely  only  an  empty  net  could 
weigh  so  little ! 

True  enough,  as  the  first  meshes  rise  above  the  water, 
nothing  can  be  seen  in  the  net.  But  wait ;  near  the 
lower  edge  is  an  irregular  row  of  herring,  whose  presence 
suggests  that  there  are  more  where  they  came  from.  The 
bulk  of  the  shoal  has  not  yet  started  to  rise. 

"  That's  near  enough,"  says  the  skipper.  "  Let's  run 
out  the  whole  fleet";  and  speedily  extra  nets  are  fastened 
on,  one  after  another,  till  there  is  a  wall  of  them,  many 
hundreds  of  yards  long,  trailing  out  into  the  sea,  the 
cork-line  waggling  and  coiling  till  it  looks  like  an  endless 
worm. 

Other  boats  are  running  up  blue-lights  now,  but  no  one 
troubles  to  comment  on  the  fact ;  there  is  silence  again, 
only  broken  by  the  plop-plop  of  the  fish  as  they  rise,  or 
by  a  sudden  wild  shriek  from  the  gulls  as  they  announce 
to  their  friends  the  fishermen  that  the  herrings  continue 
to  play  near  the  surface.  Following  the  track  of  the 
cork-line  with  our  eye,  we  can  see  that  it  is  now  illuminated 
all  along  with  streaks  of  greenish  light ;  every  now  and 
then,  too,  we  may  see  the  bladders  rocking  and  bobbing  in 
a  curious  manner ;  now  one  goes  completely  under  and 
comes  up  again ;  the  corks  are  swaying  hither  and 
thither  irresponsibly.  The  advance-guard  of  a  shoal  is 
being  safely  snared. 

But,  before  there  is  time  to  do  more  than  arrive  at  this 
conclusion,  a  whole  wave  of  phosphorus  flashes  along  in 

140 


THE  BRITISH  HERRING  FISHERY 

the  direction  of  the  net-fleet,  and  bladders  and  cork-line 
are  dragged  under ;  the  tow- warp  groans,  and  strains  on 
the  boat.  The  main  body  is  encountering  the  nets,  and 
the  crew  no  longer  care  whether  the  Argyle  has  made  a 
strike  or  no  ;  at  any  rate  their  boat  has.  They  shuffle  to 
their  feet  without  a  word  from  the  skipper,  for  ex- 
perience of  him  and  his  methods  has  taught  them  that, 
if  he  is  not  one  to  be  in  an  unnecessary  hurry,  he  equally 
is  not  given  to  letting  his  nets  get  fouled  or  sunk,  through 
a  foolish  desire  to  catch  more  fish  than  he  can  possibly 
carry  away. 

Seizing  the  sodden  warp,  they  drag  and  strain  till 
sufficient  of  it  is  hauled  in  to  go  round  the  windlass ;  and 
not  till  then  does  one  of  them  untie  the  end  of  it  from  the 
cross-bit.  Irish  or  South  Country  fishermen  would  bid 
him  hurry  himself,  in  no  measured  terms,  for  the  strain  is 
unspeakable,  even  on  these  tough  muscles  and  strong-knit 
frames ;  but  the  more  phlegmatic  Northerners  just  bide 
their  time  and  wait  patiently  while  the  end  of  the  warp  is 
hitched  to  the  windlass  or  the  capstan,  and  till  the  click- 
click  of  the  ratch  stops,  telling  them  that  the  man  who  is 
turning  has  taken  in  as  much  rope  as,  unaided,  he  is  able. 
Then  one  or  two  of  them  join  him  at  the  windlass,  while 
the  rest  stretch  themselves  and  prepare  for  the  further 
task  of  drawing  the  nets  over  the  gunwale.  A  few  more 
turns  of  the  winch  and  the  first  bladder  is  lifted  in  and 
the  top  corner  of  the  nearest  net  comes  into  view.  Again 
the  streaks  of  greenish  light,  more  tangible  now;  again 
the  popping,  buzzing  sound;  then  you  realise  that 
hundreds,  or  thousands,  of  the  herring,  caught  fast  by 

141 


THE  BRITISH  HERRING  FISHERY 

the  gills,  are  wriggling  for  freedom,  so  close  to  you  that 
you  can  touch  the  polished  little  bodies ;  more,  you  can 
see  cod  and  other  big  fish  jumping  above  water  to  snatch 
a  mouthful. 

"  Yeo-ho ;  oo-up !  Now,  all  together — oo-up  !  Now — 
oo-up  !  All  together  ! "  murmur  the  hands  in  a  sort  of 
doleful  chorus,  as  they  bend  to  their  labour,  and  with 
muscles  strained  to  their  utmost,  hoist  in  coil  after  coil  of 
net,  so  stuffed  with  fish  that,  in  places,  it  is  difficult  to 
find  a  hand-hold.  Here  and  there  may  be  an  empty  mesh, 
where  a  slender  youngster  has  been  able  to  squeeze  itself 
right  through  the  little  inch-and-a-half  opening ;  but 
the  majority  of  the  middle  and  lower  squares  have 
tenants. 

"  Well  have  to  be  lively,  lads,"  says  the  skipper,  who 
has  left  the  helm  and  is  bearing  a  hand  with  the  nets ; 
"  Fm  thinking  therell  be  dead  stuff  in  the  last  three, 
else." 

When  herring  have  been  held  by  their  gills  for  some 
length  of  time  they  are  apt  to  die — in  fact,  no  fish  dies  so 
quickly,  whence  the  saying,  "  dead  as  a  herring11 ;  and 
dead  fish  means  dead  weight ;  a  net  filled  with  such  a 
catch  will  sometimes  tear  itself  away  from  the  "  fleet " 
and  be  lost  beyond  the  hope  of  recovery.  Therefore  the 
men  waste  no  time  in  working  their  way  through  the 
seemingly  interminable  series  of  nets,  for  the  last  three  to 
come  up  were  the  first  three  to  be  shot,  and  they  will  be 
lucky  if  they  find  them  unbroken.  The  last  lot  are  more 
crowded  than  ever ;  every  now  and  then  there  is  a  little 
jerk  as  half  a  dozen  meshes  break  ;  and  some  of  the  men 

142 


THE  BRITISH  HERRING  FISHERY 

lean  over  the  bulwarks  and,  getting  their  arms  under  the 
net,  lift  in  whole  bundles  of  living  and  dead  fish. 

"Last  lot,'1  says  someone  who  has  been  mechanically 
counting  the  nets  as  they  come  up.  Now  the  jerks  and 
rips  are  growing  more  frequent,  for  here  are  more  dead 
herring  than  live  ones.  That  last  net  will  require  a  lot 
of  patient  mending  when  they  get  it  ashore.  But,  in 
spite  of  breakages  and  unusual  weight,  it  is  pulled 
aboard  at  last.  While  the  men  nearest  the  gunwale  have 
been  hauling  in,  others  behind  them  have  been  busily 
shaking  and  twisting  the  nets  in  order  to  clear  them  as 
far  as  they  can  of  their  silvery  load ;  and  now  that  all 
hands  can  be  spared  for  this  work  the  hold  is  getting 
fuller  and  fuller,  till,  to  the  inexperienced  eye,  it  would 
seem  that  the  vessel  must  either  founder  or  else  take 
about  a  day  and  a  half  to  wander  home,  lame  duck 
fashion.  But  the  crew  cast  almost  a  disparaging  glance 
over  the  catch ;  all  of  them  have  seen  twice  as  many  to 
one  strike. 

"Unship  the  last  three,"  cries  the  skipper,  "and  let's 
try  another  shoot." 

The  three  nets  at  the  top  of  the  coil  are  untied  and 
laid  aside,  considerably  the  worse  for  wear;  and,  as  the 
water  still  glitters,  and  it  will  be  long  before  daylight 
appears,  the  remainder  of  the  fleet  is  re-shot.  Then  care- 
ful hands  spread  out  the  pyramids  of  fish  so  that  those  at 
the  top  fill  up  the  spare  corners  of  the  hold  and  leave 
room  for  the  next  batch. 

Now  that  the  nets  are  shot  for  the  second  time,  a  by- 
stander has  an  opportunity  of  noticing  that  a  peculiar 

143 


THE  BRITISH  HERRING  FISHERY 

cheep-cheep  sound,  like  the  squeak  of  mice,  is  coming  up 
from  the  hold.  If  the  skipper  be  facetiously  inclined  he 
will  reply  on  being  questioned  as  to  the  noise — 

"Ou,  it'll  just  be  the  haerin1  greetm'  to  gae  back." 

Such  an  informant  must  needs,  one  would  think,  be  own 
brother  to  the  crab  or  lobster-boiler  who  announces  that 
his  fish  scream  when  thrown  into  the  hot  water.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  the  noise  is  caused  by  the  escape  of  the  air 
from  the  herrings1  swimming-bladders. 

"  All  right ;  pull  up — and  shairp  ! "  cries  our  skipper 
suddenly ;  and  the  same  weary  work  has  to  be  gone 
through  all  over  again.  And  this  time  the  meshes  seem 
fuller  than  before ;  the  net  must  have  shot  clean  in  front 
of  a  shoal  that  was  driving  down  with  the  current.  The 
skipper  measures  the  contents  of  the  hold  with  his  eye. 
There  are  still  two  more  nets  to  be  emptied,  and  the  boat 
won't  stand  another  barrel-full.  He  takes  a  philosophical 
view  of  the  subject ;  the  rest  must  go  back.  A  grasping 
young  skipper  would  perhaps  load  his  vessel  till  she  was 
like  a  coal-tramp,  but  this  fellow  has  more  sense ;  he  has 
done  what  he  came  to  do  and  he  means  to  get  home.  The 
superfluous  fish  are  shaken  out  of  the  net  overboard,  and 
the  tired  fishermen  withdraw  to  the  fire,  except  those  who 
are  occupied  in  unstepping  the  mast  and  fixing  the  lug. 

Dawn  is  coming  on ;  many  of  the  mast-head  lights 
have  disappeared  and  the  fishing  fleet  show  signs  of 
gathering  together. 

"  Twelve  maze,"  or  "  Fourteen  cran,"  cries  the  skipper 
of  the  Argyle  exultingly.  "  That'll  beat  ye,  lad." 

"  I'm  thinking  we've  gotten  as  many,"  says  our  skipper 

144 


g   ** 

r     S>? 


THE  BRITISH  HERRING  FISHERY 

diffidently,  knowing  full  well  that  his  catch  amounts  to 
nearly  half  as  much  again. 

"Maze,"  "cran,"  etc.,  it  should  be  explained,  are  semi- 
local  terms.  The  measure  for  herrings  differs  according 
to  the  neighbourhood.  The  three  generally  recognised 
are  the  maze  on  the  west  coast  of  Scotland  and  the  Irish 
Sea  generally  (mease  in  Devonshire) ;  the  last  on  the  east 
coast  of  England,  and  the  cran  on  the  east  of  Scotland. 
The  last-named — equivalent  to  26f  gallons — makes  the 
fish  sold  by  bulk  ;  the  other  two  by  numbers.  The  east- 
coast  fishermen  reckon  the  warp  (i.e.  4  fish)  as  their  unit ; 
and  33  warps,  or  132  fish,  make  a  "long  hundred";  1320 
fish  go  to  the  thousand,  and  ten  thousand  (13,200)  =  a 
last. 

The  west-coasters  reckon  123  to  the  long  hundred, 
and  5  long  hundred  (615)  to  the  maze.  Mr.  Frederick 
Pollock,  however,  makes  the  Devonshiremen  arrive  at 
their  maze  in  a  totally  different  way.  Their  unit  is  a 
cast,  i.e.  3,  or  as  many  as  can  be  held  in  the  hand ;  51 
cast  =  a  quarter  maze  (153) — the  number,  he  points  out, 
of  the  miraculous  draught  mentioned  in  St.  John  xxi.  11  ; 
and  4  quarter  maze  =  612. 

Now  that  the  sails  are  set  the  men  are  free  to  break- 
fast ;  for,  unless  they  have  come  a  long  way  from  home — 
in  which  case  the  fish  has  still  to  be  sprinkled  with  salt 
— there  is  nothing  more  for  them  to  do  till  the  question 
of  selling  arises.  The  getting  rid  of  the  fish  will  also 
differ  in  various  districts.  In  many  parts  the  boats  will 
have  a  good-sized  harbour  to  run  into,  and  the  fishwives 
will  be  waiting  on  the  quay  to  buy  up  the  catch  as  fast 
K  145 


THE  BRITISH  HERRING  FISHERY 

as  it  can  be  thrown  out  to  them.  At  a  big  port  like 
Grimsby  it  will  be  hurried  off  to  the  market  and  sold 
by  auction,  or  at  current  market-price.  In  many  places 
the  steam -carrier  is  requisitioned.  She  comes  out  to 
meet  the  fleet  at  dawn,  and  the  agents  on  board  buy  each 
boat-load  (or  undertake  to  dispose  of  it  at  the  market)  as 
it  comes  alongside. 

As  far  as  the  picturesque  is  concerned,  one  cannot  help 
regretting  that  the  account  of  the  herring-fishery  as  out- 
lined above  must  soon  be  decidedly  "out  of  date." 
Following  American  and  Norwegian  examples  our  herring- 
fleets  have  gradually  congregated  in  the  big  ports,  have 
substituted  the  purse-seine  or  the  trawl  for  the  old  gill- 
net,  and  are  even  abandoning  the  luggers  of  our  child- 
hood in  favour  of  ponderous  steamers. 

By  means  of  the  purses  mentioned  in  the  last  chapter 
an  entire  shoal  will  be  taken  (amounting  sometimes  to 
hundreds  of  thousands),  necessitating  the  employment 
of  extra  deck-hands  and  the  erection  of  huge  store  and 
clearing-houses. 

In  addition  to  those  herring  caught  here,  millions  are 
brought  to  Hull  and  Lowestoft  from  Norway.  The  Nor- 
wegian fishermen,  on  sighting  a  shoal,  lower  into  the 
water  an  imitation  whale,  made  of  wood  and  weighted ; 
and,  terrified  at  sight  of  this,  the  herring  swim  into  a 
bay  which  forms  a  natural  trap.  Huge  purse-seines  are 
then  shot  and  the  whole  shoal  is  rapidly  netted.  The 
catch  is  sold  by  the  box  or  in  one  lot ;  in  the  latter  case 
the  buyer  bargains  while  the  fish  are  still  in  the  water, 
and  estimates  the  value  with  the  aid  of  a  water  spy-glass. 

146 


CHAPTER  XII 
FISHING   IN  THE  MEDITERRANEAN 

Possibilities  of  the  Mediterranean  fisheries — Migration  of  the  anchovy 
— Shooting  the  seine  for  anchovies — The  moored  net — Some  of  its 
occupants — The  fisherman's  friends  and  enemies — Sharks — Saw- 
fish and  sword-fish — The  tunny — Setting  the  nets — Slaughtering 
the  catch — Another  Sicilian  industry — Line-fishing. 

A  SEA  that  is  over  two  thousand  miles  long  and  con- 
siderably more  than  a  million  square  miles  in 
extent,  that  never  experiences  a  temperature  of 
less  than  50°  F.,  and  scarcely  knows  the  meaning  of  tides ; 
above  all,  that  abounds  in  fish  of  every  description,  as 
well  as  turtles,  sponge,  coral,  and  amber,  sounds  like  a 
fisherman's  Elysium ;  and  such,  in  the  hands  of  more 
energetic  people  than  the  North  Africans  and  the 
Southern  Europeans,  it  might  be.  Unfortunately  the 
Mediterranean  washes  the  coasts  of  nations  that,  for  the 
more  part,  have  ceased  to  believe  much  in  hard  work ; 
and  even  our  own  poor  Irish  fisheries  are  better  managed 
and  relatively  more  productive  than  theirs.  Exceptions 
must  be  made  in  the  case  of  France,  and  of  Austria, 
which  has  her  Adriatic  fishing  navy  of  twelve  thousand 
men ;  also  in  that  of  the  East  Mediterranean  sponge- 
fishers,  of  whom  more  anon. 

H7 


FISHING  IN   THE  MEDITERRANEAN 

The  reader  may  ask,  What  about  the  Andalusian  and 
Italian  fisheries  ?  What  about  the  sardine  industry  ? 

Spain  and  Italy  import  far  more  fish  than  they  ever 
catch,  and  Cornwall  and  Brittany  send  pilchards  by  the 
million  to  the  southern  sardine  factories  every  year. 
Italy,  it  is  true,  has  in  late  years  taken  more  interest 
in  her  fisheries,  even  to  the  extent  of  going  in  for  arti- 
ficial fish-breeding;  but  comparatively  few  of  the  men 
attempt  deep-water  work. 

Starting  eastwards  from  Gibraltar,  the  first  important 
fishery  we  meet  with  is  that  carried  on  by  the  Andalusians, 
French,  and  Genoese  for  the  anchovy.  This  little  fish  is 
about  three  inches  long,  bluish-brown  on  the  back,  and 
silvery  white  on  the  belly.  Strictly  it  is  a  tropical  fish, 
but  the  variety  known  as  the  common  anchovy  may  be 
found  anywhere  south  of  Ireland.  By  the  end  of  April, 
shoals  of  them  collect  off  the  south-west  of  Spain,  and 
sweep  through  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar  in  millions.  By 
far  the  greater  number  of  them,  as  soon  as  they  are  in  the 
Mediterranean,  seem  to  take  an  almost  straight  course 
north-east,  shaving  the  under  side  of  the  Balearic  Islands 
and  making  steadily  for  the  north  of  Corsica,  and  up  to 
Leghorn.  Arrived  here  they  circle  round  the  little  island 
of  Gorgona,  remaining  till  the  end  of  July,  when  the 
survivors  return  to  the  Atlantic,  swimming  along  the 
Portuguese  and  French  coasts,  and  even  as  far  north  as 
England  and  Holland. 

The  Spaniards  and  the  Majorcans  thus  get  first  shot  at 
the  visitors ;  they  use  the  seine  principally,  working  it 
from  small  boats  close  in  to  shore.  Some,  however,  put 

148 


FISHING   IN   THE  MEDITERRANEAN 

out  to  sea  in  smacks  something  like  the  old  Algerine 
xebecs,  rigged  with  two  and  three  lateen  or  triangular 
sails,  and  furnished  with  a  bag-net  that  resembles  a 
shrimp-net  without  the  beam.  Many  of  the  Genoese 
anchovy  fishers  use  the  same  kind  of  tackle,  shooting  it 
from  a  boat  whose  build  would  astonish  English  fishermen  ; 
for  it  is  a  short,  broad,  clumsy  little  thing  with  a  double 
curve  along  the  bottom,  leaving  her  with  no  keel,  or 
rather  with  a  keel  that  is  buried  between  the  two  curves  ; 
nevertheless,  experienced  persons  say  that  no  better  boat 
for  the  class  of  work  could  be  found. 

The  seine-catches  are  necessarily  enormous.  The  shoals, 
which  can  be  seen  from  a  great  distance,  announce  their 
presence  by  the  pale  tint  which  appears  in  patches  on  the 
water;  and  at  sight  of  these  patches  the  boats  put  out. 
Sometimes  the  Andalusians  have  no  need  to  do  more  than 
lie  in  wait  on  the  shore,  for  the  shoals  come  in  so  near 
that  it  seems  as  if  you  could  wade  out  and  catch  the  fish 
in  buckets.  Going  leisurely  to  work,  the  rowing-boats 
pull  out  to  the  far  side  of  the  nearest  shoal,  each  two 
carrying  between  them  a  seine  a  couple  of  hundred  yards 
long,  six  to  eight  fathoms  deep  in  the  middle,  rounding 
oft*  to  three  or  four  at  each  end  or  wing. 

When  a  pair  of  boats  has  arrived  at  the  desired  spot 
the  seine  is  shot  as  soon  as  they  have  separated  to  a 
distance  equal  to  the  length  of  the  net,  each  end  of  which 
is  made  fast  to  a  long  tow-line,  the  other  ends  of  these 
being  tied  one  to  each  boat.  Then  the  rowers  pull  back 
very  gently,  the  boats  gradually  getting  nearer  one  an- 
other again,  and  carry  the  tow-lines  ashore,  where  women 

149 


FISHING   IN  THE  MEDITERRANEAN 

and  children,  or  horses,  are  waiting  to  haul  up.  It  will 
be  seen  that  the  net,  being  pulled  in  by  two  forces  that 
gradually  approach  each  other,  thus  converts  itself  into 
a  kind  of  bag  in  which  the  fish  are  swept  along  willy-nilly. 

As  soon  as  the  seine  is  within  a  few  yards  of  dry  land 
it  is  moored,  a  smaller  net  is  shot  inside  it,  and  baling  out 
commences — a  task  that  sometimes  lasts  a  whole  day  and 
more ;  the  fish  are  then  packed  in  kegs  between  layers  of 
salt  and  taken  to  the  factories. 

The  anchovy  industry  is  a  very  ancient  one ;  the  garum 
of  the  Roman  banquets  was  merely  another  form  of 
anchovy  sauce,  and  the  condiment  which  Hindu  cooks 
call  red-fish  is  obtained  from  the  anchovies  caught  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Ganges. 

In  the  Adriatic  and  in  the  shallower  parts  of  the  Gulf 
of  Lyons,  we  find  the  moored  net  a  good  deal  in  use  for 
mullet  and  dory.  With  and  without  a  beam,  it  is  shot 
across  tide  from  small  boats,  which  are  held  by  the  same 
anchors  that  moor  the  net.  The  net  is  sunk  half  doubled 
or  "  mouthed,"  that  is  to  say  the  ropes  attached  to  the 
upper  corners  by  which  it  will  ultimately  be  pulled  up, 
are  first  carried  through  rings  at  the  lower  corners  so  that, 
when  once  it  is  anchored,  it  lies  bowed ;  and,  on  the  ropes 
being  tightened  by  the  upward  pull,  will  become  com- 
pletely closed.  Such  nets  are  cleared  the  first  thing  in 
the  morning  and  the  last  thing  at  night,  the  fish  being 
taken  ashore  by  tugs  or  large  two-masters. 

A  frequent  tenant  of  these  nets  is  the  dragonet,  which 
is  beautifully  marked  with  blue  and  yellow  on  a  white 
ground,  and  is  of  the  same  family  as  the  Scotch  "  gowdie." 

150 


FISHING   IN   THE  MEDITERRANEAN 

Its  peculiarity  is  that,  instead  of  the  ordinary  gill-opening, 
it  has  two  holes  in  its  neck ;  its  eyes  are  situated  on  the 
top  of  the  head,  so  that  the  fish  always  looks  upwards ; 
its  skin  has  no  scales.  With  it  will  probably  be  found  the 
jaune  doree,  or  yellow  gilt  fish,  which  has  been  vulgarly 
anglicised  as  "  John  Dory."  It  may  be  remembered  that 
this  fish,  like  the  haddock,  has  an  oval  black  spot  on 
either  side ;  from  which  the  pious  southern  fisher-folk 
argue  that  it  was  from  the  dory's  mouth  that  St.  Peter 
took  the  tribute  money,  the  marks  being  the  impress  of 
his  finger-tips ;  unfortunately  for  the  truth  of  the  legend, 
there  is  neither  dory  nor  haddock  in  the  Sea  of  Galilee  or 
in  any  other  fresh  water.  Another  fish  of  the  same  family, 
which  only  the  poorer  Italians  will  eat,  is  the  boar-fish, 
whose  head  is  shaped  like  the  snout  of  a  hog. 

The  fisherman  of  the  south  of  France  has  a  valued 
friend  in  the  maigre,  a  doubtful  one  in  the  pilot  fish,  and  a 
deadly  enemy  in  the  shark.  The  least  known  and  most 
interesting  of  these,  the  maigre,  can  be  taken  with  long 
lines,  but  quite  as  often  goes  of  its  own  accord  into  a  net 
and  stays  there.  Its  average  length  is  four  feet,  though 
fishermen  boast  of  having  taken  many  six  and  seven  feet 
long.  When  it  finds  itself  among  a  number  of  other  fish, 
it  emits  a  humming  or  buzzing  noise  that  is  plainly 
audible  through  fifteen  fathoms  of  water,  and  in  this  way 
it  is  an  infallible  guide  to  the  men  as  to  where  they  should 
shoot  the  nets.  It  figured  in  Roman  feasts  as  the  umbrina, 
and  is  still  a  great  delicacy  in  France  and  Italy,  especially 
its  head.  Its  internal  hearing  apparatus  was  worn,  set  in 
gold,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  as  a  charm  against  colic. 

151 


FISHING   IN   THE  MEDITERRANEAN 

The  pilot-fish,  as  our  sailors  call  it,  resembles  the 
mackerel  in  size,  marking,  and  flavour,  and  can  be  trawled 
with  more  ease  than  anything  except  a  herring,  for,  in 
small  batches,  it  will  follow  a  ship  for  a  thousand  miles. 
But  fishermen  have  a  superstition  that  there  is  a  secret 
understanding  between  itself  and  the  shark,  for  where  one 
is  the  other  is  usually  not  far  off. 

Almost  all  varieties  of  sharks,  except  the  Greenlander, 
are  represented  in  these  waters :  the  fox-shark,  the 
hammer-head,  the  white,  the  blue,  etc.  The  last  is  the 
fisherman's  pet  abomination,  for  it  not  only  eats  the  fish 
that  he  is  wanting  to  catch,  varying  its  diet  with  a  human 
meal  when  circumstances  permit,  but  it  will  bite  a  mouth- 
ful out  of  a  full  net  (generally  about  half  the  catch),  and 
swallow  fish  and  meshes  with  gusto.  The  shark  is  shot 
and  harpooned  for  the  sake  of  his  oil  and  the  well-being 
of  the  community,  and  the  Levant  traders  make  a  con- 
siderable sum  annually  over  the  sale  of  shagreen,  which  is 
supposed  to  be  shark-skin  dressed,  but  is  more  often  the 
hide  of  camels,  donkeys,  and  horses. 

Two  other  net-destroyers  are  the  pristes,  or  saw-fish, 
whose  toothed  snout  is  familiar  to  most  of  us  ;  and  the 
celebrated  sword-fish.  This  giant — his  body  is  fourteen 
feet  long  and  his  proboscis  another  seven — is  an  un- 
reasonable beast.  He  does  not  care  about  fish  as  food,  in 
fact,  he  lives  on  seaweed,  yet  is  never  so  happy  as  when 
breaking  up  a  shoal  and  frightening  fish  away  from  his 
neighbourhood ;  and,  when  he  happens  to  take  up  a 
position  in  front  of  the  net,  this  propensity  of  his  has 
rather  a  disastrous  effect,  for  other  fish  dare  not  come 

152 


FISHING   IN   THE   MEDITERRANEAN 

near.  He  is  a  wonderfully  fast  swimmer,  as  may  be  seen 
when  he  is  fleeing  from  a  shark,  and  is  perhaps  the  most 
powerful  of  all  fish.  He  will  swim  straight  through  a 
full  net,  tearing  up  the  anchors  or  snapping  the  tow-lines ; 
sometimes  he  is  shot,  and  his  flesh  is  supposed  to  be  par- 
ticularly nutritious,  especially  if  he  is  young. 

Passing  downwards  to  Sicily  and  Sardinia  we  find  the 
inhabitants  possessing  a  monopoly  in  tunny-fishing.  That 
monopoly,  by  the  way,  is  only  of  recent  date,  for  these 
curiosities  used  to  be  caught  in  great  numbers  by  the 
Andalusian  fishermen  and  also  by  the  Turks. 

The  tunny  (Greek  ihuno,  to  dart  along)  is  a  giant 
mackerel,  dark  blue  above,  white  below,  and  silver  on  the 
sides,  measuring  anything  from  ten  to  twenty  feet  long, 
and  sometimes  weighing  as  much  as  half  a  ton.  It  is  not 
quite  peculiar  to  the  Mediterranean,  for  there  is  a  species 
found  off  the  east  coast  of  the  United  States  which  the 
Americans  call  the  albicore  and  the  horse-mackerel. 

In  Sicily  and  Sardinia  it  is  caught  very  much  as  the 
Sicilian  Greeks  captured  it,  seven  hundred  years  B.C.,  only 
with  perhaps  less  assiduity,  by  means  of  nets  and 
harpoons.  Like  other  creatures  that  shoal,  they  can- 
not do  without  betraying  their  whereabouts,  and  a  man 
perched  on  an  eminence  can  detect  from  a  great  distance 
the  pale  brown  blotches  which  a  crowd  of  them  would 
create  on  the  water-surface.  In  spring  and  summer  the 
fish  come  within  a  mile  of  the  shore  for  spawning,  and  it 
is  then  that  the  tunny -harvest  is  made. 

A  coarse-meshed  net,  more  than  a  mile  long,  is  carried 
out  to  sea,  and  one  end  of  it  moored,  the  other  being 

153 


FISHING  IN  THE  MEDITERRANEAN 

made  fast  ashore  or  to  a  smack  ;  a  second,  almost  as  long, 
is  then  shot  parallel  to  the  coast,  making  with  the  first 
net  either  a  T  or  a  cross,  and  these  are  left  in  that 
position  for  at  least  twenty-four  hours.  When  a  sufficient 
number  of  fish  have  been  covered,  the  towing-in  begins ; 
the  anchors  are  pulled  up,  and  a  line  fastened  to  each  wing 
is  rapidly  carried  ashore  by  boats.  The  towlines  being 
pulled  very  swiftly — often  by  horse-power — not  only  the 
fish  that  are  already  caught  by  the  gills  are  brought  in, 
but  also  those  that  happen  to  be  within  reach  of  the  two 
wings. 

The  moment  the  net  is  drawn  into  a  specially  prepared 
shallow,  the  fish  find  themselves  enclosed  above  and  below, 
and  there  is  no  possible  escape  for  them.  Then  the  kill- 
ing ;  this  is  unsportsmanlike,  but  all  fishing  is  apt  to  be 
so  when  money  is  the  sole  end  in  view.  The  poor  fish, 
mewed  up  so  closely  that  you  can't  tell  one  from  another, 
are  speared  at  leisure  from  the  boats  with  harpoons  till 
all  are  dead.  They  are  then  disembowelled  and  quartered 
and  taken  ashore  for  boiling,  for  the  sake  of  their  oil, 
which  is  valuable  and  plentiful,  one  fish  alone  sometimes 
yielding  twenty  gallons.  Tunny-fishing  gives  employment 
to  more  than  three  thousand  men  in  the  two  islands, 
much  of  the  work  in  Sicily  being  done  by  convicts. 

Another  Sicilian  industry,  now  on  the  wane  although 
popular  among  the  ancients,  is  pinna-gathering,  the 
"  pinna "  being  a  member  of  the  pearl-mussel  family. 
The  shell  is  immense,  about  the  size  of  a  very  large  meat- 
dish,  and  is  gathered  by  wading  and  rock-scrambling. 
The  fish  itself  is  a  secondary  matter,  though  it  is  largely 

154 


FISHING   IN   THE  MEDITERRANEAN 

eaten  by  the  poorer  classes ;  but  the  filament  or  byssus, 
by  which  it  attaches  itself  to  the  rocks  or  other  objects, 
is  about  two  feet  long,  and  is  used  for  making  fabrics, 
being  very  tough  and  glossy. 

The  Greek  and  East  Mediterranean  fisheries  are  so 
sadly  neglected  that  there  is  really  nothing  to  say  about 
them,  all  such  work  being  overshadowed  by  the  importance 
attached  to  sponge-diving ;  while  the  fisheries  of  Austria 
do  not  differ  from  those  of  Italy  except  in  magnitude. 
On  the  African  coast  of  the  Sea,  fresh-water  fish  are  more 
sought  after  than  those  from  salt  water,  for  the  reason 
that  they  are  more  easily  come  by.  The  fishermen  of 
Tripoli  are  industrious,  and  France  has  infused  a  certain 
amount  of  energy  into  those  of  Tunisia ;  but,  while  a 
hand-net  lowered  haphazard  into  a  pool  or  river  will 
bring  up  a  day's  supply  of  fish  for  a  whole  family — nay, 
while  live  fish  are  even  thrown  at  a  man's  door,  as  some- 
times happens  in  North  Africa  when  an  artesian  well  is 
sunk,  coast  work  is  liable  to  be  neglected. 

A  word  about  Mediterranean  line-fishing  among  the 
French,  Genoese  and  Venetians.  Hand-lines  are  used 
principally  for  maigres,  eels,  and  rays,  the  work  being  done 
from  quays  and  small  boats.  Among  the  rays  thus  caught 
is  one  which  commands  more  sale  to  conjurers,  naturalists, 
and  practical  jokers  than  to  ordinary  consumers — the 
torpedo,  or  electric  ray,  which  is  so  like  the  skate  that  it 
is  often  mistaken  for  it,  and  which  has  under  its  gills,  two 
organs  wherein  is  lodged  an  electrical  apparatus  capable 
of  giving  twenty  or  thirty  violent  shocks  per  minute. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
THE   PILCHARD— THE    STURGEON 

The  Cornish  fisherman — The  pilchard— Shoaling— Drift  -  nets  and 
seines— The  "  seine-boat  "—Shooting  the  net — The  stop-seines— 
Sharks  !— "  Tucking  "—Taking  the  fish  ashore— The  factory— The 
sturgeon — Russian  sturgeon  and  sterlet  fishing— Isinglass  and 
caviare. 

CORNWALL  and  the  pilchard  are  as  closely  asso- 
ciated in  one's  mind  as  Devonshire  and  cream,  and 
any  one  who  has  seen  the  coast-line  between  the 
Lizard  and  St.  Ives  will  also  unconsciously  connect  pil- 
chard-fishing with  danger.     Certain  spots  do  not  get  such 
names  as  the  Devil's  Frying-pan  or  the  Lion  Rocks  for 
nothing. 

The  Cornish  fisherman  takes  himself  far  more  seriously 
than  the  happy-go-lucky  fellows  of  the  south  and  east 
coasts.  Instead  of  their  quaint  survivals  of  Saxon 
paganism,  he  holds  certain  gloomy  predestinarian  views, 
and  devoutly  believes  in  the  ultimate  perdition  of  the 
Devonshire  trawlers.  But  he  is  a  fine  man  all  the  same, 
and  if  his  opinions  give  him  the  courage  to  face  a  rock- 
studded  sea  that,  even  in  the  brightest  of  weather,  would 
be  uninviting  to  most  landsmen,  he  had  better  stick  to 
them. 

From  October  to  July  he  is  occupied  as  fishing  jack-of- 

156 


THE  PILCHARD— THE   STURGEON 

all-trades — spratting,  crabbing,  mackerelling,  trawling. 
But,  when  July  comes,  every  other  interest  is  put  on 
one  side  by  the  men  of  St.  Ives  and  Penzance  for  the  sake 
of  the  pilchard-harvest,  which  will  last  till  the  equinoctial 
storms  of  late  September  have  begun  to  drive  the  fish  to 
the  ground,  or  further  out  to  sea. 

The  pilchard,  or  the  "gypsy  herring1'  as  the  Scotch 
fishermen  call  it,  is  merely  a  large  sardine  or  a  small 
herring,  and  may  be  of  any  length  up  to  nine  inches. 
Really  it  can  be  found  off  the  Cornish  coast  at  all  seasons 
of  the  year,  though  in  December  and  January  one  would 
have  to  go  down  to  the  mud  after  it ;  in  March  it  begins 
to  shoal,  but  to  no  great  extent,  and  the  fishery  seldom 
starts  before  the  end  of  June  or  beginning  of  July.  For 
some  good  reason  the  pilchard  has,  through  successive  cen- 
turies, decided  that  that  particular  quarter  of  the  Atlantic 
is  best  adapted  to  spawning  purposes  and  to  the  special 
class  of  food  which  it  most  affects ;  and  thus,  year  after 
year,  it  chooses  almost  the  same  spots  for  shoaling.  It  is 
a  most  voracious  little  creature,  its  food  consisting  mainly 
of  a  kind  of  shrimp  scarcely  larger  than  a  pin's  head,  or 
of  the  roes  of  dead  fish  when  it  can  get  them. 

A  shoal  of  pilchards  must  be  seen  in  order  to  be  fully 
realised.  It  has  been  likened  to  an  immense  army,  with 
wings  outstretched  in  line  with  the  land,  and  composed  of 
contingents  which  are  continually  taking  up  a  new  posi- 
tion. Wherever  the  shoals  move,  they  give  the  appear- 
ance of  a  cloud-shadow  to  the  water- surface,  and  by  this 
the  pilchard- watchmen  profit ;  for  men  are  placed  on 
rising  ground  to  look  for  these  signs,  and  the  moment 

'57 


THE   PILCHARD— THE   STURGEON 

they  see  them  they  signal  by  means  of  a  white  canvas  ball 
to  the  boats  that  are  lying  in  wait  below. 

Ever  since  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  this  fishery  has 
been  closely  protected  and  governed  by  Acts  of  Parlia- 
ment ;  the  law  even  decides  as  to  the  dimensions  of  the 
nets,  every  one  of  which  has  to  be  registered.  St.  Ives 
has  over  three  hundred  nets,  and  is  the  centre  of  six 
specially  appointed  fishing-stations. 

The  net  most  in  use  is  the  seine — and  that  of  gigantic 
proportions ;  the  smallest  allowed  for  out-fishing  being  a 
hundred  and  sixty  fathoms  long,  eight  fathoms  deep  at 
the  middle,  and  six  at  the  ends.  These  belong  principally 
to  companies  nowadays,  but  a  few  private  individuals  still 
embark  in  the  trade.  Fleets  of  drift-nets,  seven  fathoms 
deep  and  three-quarters  of  a  mile  long,  are  also  used,  and 
are  worked  like  herring-nets. 

The  old-fashioned  "  seine-boat "  is  a  ponderous  craft 
thirty-two  feet  long,  manned  by  a  crew  of  eight — six  to 
row  and  two  to  manage  the  gear.  Before  sunset  she  is 
lying  off  the  shore,  awaiting  the  signal  from  the  men  on 
the  look-out,  and,  the  moment  that  comes,  she  pulls  away 
as  directed  by  them.  With  her  are  two  shorter  boats, 
each  with  six  men  aboard,  and  behind  her  she  tows  a 
third — a  little  cock-boat  or  "  lurker,"  from  which  the 
skipper  gives  his  orders  and  superintends  the  manipula- 
tion of  the  net ;  thus  a  pilchard-seine  takes  four  boats  to 
manage  it. 

At  such  work  as  this  there  is  little  time  for  spells 
of  idleness ;  hard,  heavy  rowing,  often  against  wind  and 
current,  is  the  oarsmen^s  portion ;  unceasing  vigilance  that 

158 


THE  PILCHARD— THE   STURGEON 

of  the  skipper  and  the  net-minders.  At  times  the  skipper 
seems  to  be  giving  as  many  and  as  rapid  directions  as 
though  he  were  a  coach  training  a  racing  crew.  This  is 
because  there  is  no  reliance  to  be  placed  on  the  position 
of  the  bodies  of  the  shoal;  at  one  time  the  fish  will 
appear  to  be  making  straight  away  from  the  boat's 
course ;  the  minute  after,  the  rowers  must  suddenly  slow 
up,  because  it  seems  as  though  the  entire  shoal  is  driving 
as  quickly  as  possible  towards  them. 

At  last,  at  a  shout  from  the  skipper,  every  one  stops 
pulling  and  rests  on  his  oar,  and  the  two  net-men  in  the 
seine-boat,  one  at  bow  and  the  other  in  the  stern,  throw 
the  ends  of  the  seine  to  the  two  smaller  boats,  and  all 
three  begin  shooting.  The  "  bunt "  or  deepest  portion  of 
the  net  is  sunk  from  the  large  boat  and  requires  careful 
handling,  being  the  most  heavily  weighted  part.  As  soon 
as  the  lower  edge  of  this  has  touched  the  water  it  is 
maintained  in  that  position  while  the  other  two  crews 
arrange  the  tow-lines  that  are  to  be  attached  to  the 
wings. 

"  Right,"  and  "  Ay,  ay ! "  come  hoarsely  from  first  one 
boat  and  then  the  other,  and  the  men  in  the  principal 
boat  lower  the  bunt  gently,  parallel  to  the  coast-line,  till 
only  the  cork-rope  is  visible. 

Now  that  the  main  net  is  down  the  seine-boat  pulls 
rapidly  back  towards  the  shore  for  a  minute  and  then 
stops  again,  waiting  to  complete  the  work.  Meanwhile 
the  boat  at  each  end  has  been  joining  one  wing  of  a 
second  and  a  third  net — the  "  stop-seines " — to  the  prin- 
cipal seine,  and  is  now  pulling  towards  the  bigger  craft  in 


THE   PILCHARD— THE   STURGEON 

order  to  throw  the  connecting  line  at  the  other  end  on 
board  of  her,  paying  out  part  of  her  stop-seine  as  she 
goes.  The  lines  are  seized  by  the  waiting  crew,  drawn 
together,  and  the  two  stops  joined  so  that  they  are  like 
one  net ;  and  then  the  meeting-point  is  lowered  like  the 
rest.  The  result  of  this  manoeuvre  is  that  a  second  seine 
has  been  shot — making,  with  the  first,  an  oval  or  a  letter 
D,  according  to  the  length  of  the  stops — in  front  of  the 
shoal,  thereby  arresting  the  fish  that  had  been  swimming 
towards  the  shore  away  from  the  large  seine  and  driving 
them  back  to  it. 

Now  the  three  boats,  all  pulling  together,  begin  slowly 
towing  in  till  shallower  water  is  reached.  Then  another 
halt  is  made,  for  the  area  covered  by  the  nets  is  larger 
than  is  necessary,  now  that  there  is  no  longer  danger  of 
the  fish  swimming  under  the  net.  The  small  boats  again 
make  for  the  "joins11;  each  one  separates  its  own  end  of 
the  stop-net  from  the  wing  of  the  seine,  and  between 
them  they  rapidly  draw  these  wings  together  till  the 
whole  forms  a  rough  circle ;  then  the  stop-net  is  removed 
and  towing  begins  once  more,  and  continues  till  some 
time  after  the  lead-line  has  begun  to  scrape  along  the 
bottom,  when  the  net  is  moored. 

By  dawn  the  men  will  be  off  again,  for  sunset  and  sun- 
rise are  the  two  favourable  times  for  catching.  The  nets 
are  paid  out  as  before,  the  morning  work  being  perhaps  a 
little  more  leisurely  done,  because  light  is  coming  instead 
of  going.  Occasionally  while  at  this  morning  fishing,  the 
cork-line  is  suddenly  seen  to  sway  and  bob,  and  perhaps  to 
be  drawn  under  altogether,  as  though  a  shoal  had  been 

1 60 


THE  PILCHARD— THE   STURGEON 

caught  by  the  gills  and  were  carrying  it  down  with  their 
weight. 

"A  shark,  lads,"  roars  the  skipper.  "Look  to  your 
tow-ropes.1' 

Again  the  cork-line  ducks,  then  comes  up  again,  and 
floating  with  it  is,  alas !  a  jagged  strip  of  netting  several 
yards  long.  A  blue  shark  that  has  wandered  up  from 
the  Bay  of  Biscay  has  helped  himself  to  a  mouthful  of 
the  fish. 

"  Pull  up  sharp,11  is  the  order,  which  is  quickly  executed 
and  the  net  examined.  Perhaps  the  mischievous  monster 
has  but  bitten  a  hole  big  enough  for  its  unwieldy  body  to 
pass  through ;  if  so  a  fold  is  made,  the  edges  are  deftly 
joined  up  without  useless  lamentation,  and  the  net  is 
taken  aboard  till  another  shoal  presents  itself.  But  where 
drift-nets  are  used,  and  the  pilchards  therefore  a  fixture 
in  the  net,  times  have  been  known  when,  on  starting  to 
haul  up,  the  hapless  fishermen  have  found  little  to  haul 
beyond  the  cork-line  and  a  strip  of  net,  for  the  shark  has 
passed  along  the  entire  length  of  the  "  fleet,11  cutting  out 
the  catch  as  though  with  a  pair  of  scissors,  with  the  result 
that  the  lower  part  of  the  net — or  as  much  of  it  as  has 
not  been  swallowed — has  been  sunk  irretrievably,  together 
with  the  fish  that  it  contained. 

During  the  past  five-and-twenty  years  many  of  the 
old  seine  rowing-boats  have  been  displaced  by  steamers, 
but  it  may  be  questioned  how  far  this  is  a  change  for 
the  better.  Certainly  larger  seines  can  be  used,  and 
towing  is  made  easier,  but  here  the  fishermen  will  tell 
you  that  the  advantages  end;  for  a  great  part  of  the 
L  161 


THE   PILCHARD— THE   STURGEON 

work  must  still  be  done  by  small  boats,  so  that  there  is 
no  appreciable  decrease  in  the  danger  involved,  and  when 
the  men  add  up  their  profits  they  find  themselves  no 
better  off  than  before. 

We  left  the  full  seine  moored  close  in  to  shore,  await- 
ing the  operation  known  as  "tucking."  When  so  many 
thousands  of  fish  are  packed  together  in  this  manner  they 
cannot  be  taken  from  the  net  all  in  a  few  minutes,  or 
even  hours.  A  good-sized  catch  of  pilchards  will  often 
take  several  days  to  move,  whence  the  notion  of  keeping 
them  in  the  water  alive.  Where  the  fish  have  been  taken 
in  drift-nets  they  are  removed  on  board  the  smacks 
from  which  the  nets  have  been  shot,  and  sprinkled  with 
salt. 

"Tucking"  is  clearing  the  seine  with  the  aid  of  a  tuck- 
net,  which  is  just  half  the  length  of  the  principal  seine. 
It  is  shot  from  a  small  boat,  inside  the  large  net,  and 
when  it  is  down  we  notice  that  in  addition  to  the  two 
end  lines  which  are  being  drawn  together,  a  third  and 
stouter  one  is  sticking  out  of  the  water.  This  line  is 
fastened  to  the  lower  edge  of  the  smaller  bunt,  and  is 
now  hauled  on  till  the  middle  of  the  tuck  comes  up 
concave,  drawing  a  large  proportion  of  the  fish  up  to 
the  surface ;  and  it  only  remains  to  bale  them  out.  This 
is  done  by  scooping  them  into  large  baskets,  which  are 
placed  in  the  boats  that  are  waiting  round  the  moored 
seine,  and  sent  ashore. 

The  crowd  of  watchers  for  the  boats  is  composed  of 
two  classes  :  "  blowsers,"  or  licensed  porters  who  carry  the 
bulk  of  the  catch  to  the  curing-yard ;  and  the  wives  and 

162 


THE   PILCHARD— THE   STURGEON 

children  of  the  fishermen,  who  will  take  home  as  many 
fish  as  they  can,  for  there  is  scarcely  one  of  these  in- 
dustrious Cornishmen  who  does  not  do  a  certain  amount 
of  curing  on  his  own  account  in  his  spare  time. 

Let  us  now  take  a  glance  at  one  of  these  curing-yards, 
where  almost  all  the  work  is  in  the  hands  of  women. 
In  the  first  place  the  pilchards  have  to  be  sorted,  the 
larger  ones  to  be  exported  to  the  West  Indies  or  sold 
for  local  consumption,  the  smaller  to  be  sent  to  the 
Mediterranean  to  be  made  into  sardines.  Then  a  large 
square  space  on  the  stone  floor  is  covered  with  a  stratum 
of  the  fish,  and  over  it  is  sprinkled  a  generous  supply 
of  coarse  salt;  then  other  layers  of  fish  and  salt  alter- 
nately, till  a  pile  five  or  six  feet  high  is  made.  The 
heaps  are  left  in  this  condition  for  a  month,  the  oil, 
water,  and  salt  gradually  draining  out  of  them  into 
gutters  communicating  with  tanks. 

By  this  time  the  fish  are  "  cured " ;  they  have  now  to 
be  carefully  washed,  after  which  only  the  packing  remains 
to  be  done ;  the  latter  is  the  most  important  and  lengthy 
part  of  the  business,  for  improperly  packed  fish  and  bad 
fish  mean  the  same  thing.  The  pilchards  must  be  placed 
in  layers  in  barrels,  and,  when  each  barrel  will  hold  no 
more,  a  weight  is  placed  on  the  top  of  it  and  the  bulk 
is  steadily  reduced  by  gradual  pressure  till  the  tub  is 
only  two-thirds  full,  the  oil  thus  squeezed  from  the  fish 
oozing  out  of  the  seams.  When  the  barrel  has  been 
filled  up  once  more,  the  pressure  is  repeated ;  and  so  on, 
till  it  will  hold  no  more,  and  the  fish  are  ready  for 
export.  The  liquor  drained  and  squeezed  from  the 

163 


THE  PILCHARD—THE   STURGEON 

pilchards  was  at  one  time  allowed  to  run  away  and  breed 
fever,  but  it  is  now  collected  with  great  care  and  sold  as 
manure. 


THE  STURGEON 

I  do  not  include  the  sturgeon  in  this  chapter  because 
zoologically  it  is  a  close  relative  of  the  pilchard,  but 
because  it  too  has  to  pass  through  a  factory  and  export 
phase.  So  far  from  being  connected  with  the  pilchard, 
it  has  little  but  gills,  fins,  and  tail  in  common  with 
it,  for  it  is  a  cartilaginous  fish,  like  the  shark,  having 
gristle  in  place  of  true  bone ;  it  is  devoid  of  teeth 
and  has  a  long  tapering  snout,  whence  its  name  is 
derived  (Latin,  stirla^  an  icicle).  Like  the  salmon,  it 
divides  its  time  between  the  sea  and  the  river,  though 
there  is  an  entirely  fresh-water  variety  which  is  found 
in  the  shallows  of  Lakes  Michigan  and  Erie.  Generally 
speaking,  it  passes  the  greater  part  of  the  year  in  the 
sea,  entering  the  rivers  in  spring  for  spawning,  and 
occasionally  in  the  autumn  for  some  purpose  at  present 
unknown.  Its  length  is  from  six  to  eleven  feet,  and  it 
is  believed  to  live  for  two  and  three  hundred  years. 

South  Russia  and  parts  of  North  America  are  the 
special  localities  for  this  fishery,  though  the  sturgeon 
appears  in  all  the  temperate  quarters  of  the  world.  Most 
readers  are  probably  aware  that  in  England  it  is  a 
"  royal  fish,"  and  when  found  in  the  Thames  within  the 
Lord  Mayor's  jurisdiction  can  be  claimed  by  the  Sov- 
ereign. 

164 


THE  PILCHARD— THE   STURGEON 

In  the  Caspian,  Azov  and  Black  Seas  it  is  sometimes 
taken  by  long  lines,  but  the  Russian  fishermen  mostly 
rely  on  the  spring  up-river  migration  ;  at  one  Volga 
station  alone  more  than  ten  thousand  fish  are  often 
caught  during  that  fortnight.  The  modern  method  is 
by  double-walled  nets  moored  across  the  current  at  the 
river-mouths,  or  by  stake- weirs ;  but  the  peasants  higher 
up  the  river  still  go  in  for  the  mediaeval  process  of 
"  snatching  "  the  fish — sturgeon  or  sterlet,  for  the  only 
difference  is  that  the  sterlet  is  smaller — with  a  cork  and 
bare  hook. 

As  soon  as  the  thaws  have  finished,  quite  a  fleet  of  the 
little  home-made  boats  may  be  seen  dotted  about  the 
quieter  parts  of  the  Volga,  two  men  to  a  boat,  one  rowing 
and  the  other  fishing.  In  spite  of  the  sturgeon's  being 
a  ground  feeder,  he  can  often  be  persuaded  to  come  to 
the  surface,  for  he  possesses  a  double  portion  of  fish- 
inquisitiveness ;  therefore  long  lines  are  not  absolutely 
necessary.  Ordinarily  the  peasant  ties  a  piece  of  cork 
or  light  wood  on  his  line,  and,  a  few  inches  below  it,  a 
barbed  hook  as  stout  as  a  pot-hook.  This  he  throws  a 
good  distance  from  his  boat  and  waits  till  a  fish  rises. 
In  the  thick  of  the  season  he  need  not  wait  long,  for  a 
fish  quickly  comes  up  to  investigate,  and  a  skilful  fisher- 
man will  have  jerked  the  hook  into  some  part  of  its  body 
long  before  its  curiosity  is  satisfied.  The  larger  fish  are 
also  harpooned. 

To  a  poor  Russian  the  catching  of  a  big  sturgeon  is 
almost  a  fortune,  for  every  bit  of  it  is  valuable.  It  is  no 
uncommon  sight  to  see  a  peasant-fisherman  rowing  or 

165 


THE  PILCHARD— THE   STURGEON 

rafting  down-stream  to  the  nearest  station  with  quite  a 
cargo  of  these  giants.  Eaten  fresh,  the  flesh  is  white  and 
somewhat  resembles  veal. 

At  the  factory  the  fish  is  first  carefully  opened  and 
cleaned ;  the  air-bladder  and  the  roe  being  set  aside,  and 
the  entrails  removed  to  be  boiled  for  oil.  The  bladder, 
after  being  freed  from  all  greasy  matter,  is  rendered  down, 
and  yields  the  purest  gelatine  that  is  to  be  found  in  the 
animal  kingdom — a  substance  better  known  commercially 
as  isinglass,  which  name  is  taken  from  the  Dutch  huizen 
bias,  sturgeon  bladder. 

A  more  important  process  relates  to  the  roe ;  the  pro- 
curing of  caviare.  The  roes,  after  they  have  been  properly 
cleaned,  are  lightly  beaten  with  twigs  so  that  the  eggs 
may  be  dislodged  and  separated ;  then  the  whole  mass  is 
rubbed  or  pressed  through  a  sieve  till  the  eggs  have  all 
filtered  into  a  tub  below,  the  tissues  of  the  roe  remaining 
in  the  sieve.  The  eggs  are  then  dried  and  salted. 

Lastly,  the  flesh  is  cut  into  strips  which  are  laid  for 
some  weeks  in  brine-tanks  and,  when  sufficiently  salted, 
are  smoked  like  bacon. 


166 


CHAFIER  XIV 

THE  CATCHING  OF  LOBSTERS, 
CRABS,   AND  WHELKS 

Fish  that  are  caught  in  pots— The  lobster— Colonial  fish— The  Bergen 
and  Christiansund  lobster-fishery — Cray-fish— Crabs — The  hermit 
— Land  crabs — Tropical  and  fresh-water  crabs— Crabbing — Whelks 
—Fishing  with  "  trots  "— Whelking  as  a  trade— The  boats— The 
pots— The  fish. 

C ESTERS,    crabs,    and    whelks    are    fish    that,    on 
account  of  their  habits,  their  formation,  and  their 
general  preference  for  deep  water,  require  special 
gear  before  they  can  be  taken  in  the  large  quantities  that 
the  market  demands ;  the  name  given  to  that  form  of 
gear  is  pots. 

None  of  these  animals  possess  a  very  high  degree  of 
intelligence  where  escape  from  captivity  is  concerned,  and 
all  of  them  are  as  greedy  and  insatiable  as  sharks ;  there- 
fore the  trap  that  will  catch  them  need  not  be  a  marvel 
of  ingenuity.  A  lobster-pot  is  generally  a  wicker  cage 
with  a  small  opening ;  sometimes  it  is  dome-shaped,  some- 
times oval ;  often,  again,  it  is  formed  like  a  soiled-linen 
basket  with  the  middle  or  waist  narrowed  down  to  about 
a  third  of  the  original  circumference.  The  lobster's  own 
curiosity  is  sufficient  to  encourage  it  to  "step  inside"; 
but  to  stimulate  desire,  a  piece  of  meat  or  fish  is  laid  or 

167 


THE   CATCHING   OF  LOBSTERS 

suspended  in  the  "  belly "  of  the  pot,  and  the  result  is 
that,  when  the  tackle  has  been  down  for  a  few  hours,  a 
store  of  struggling  lobsters  will  be  found  lying  at  the 
bottom,  for  not  one  of  them  will  have  the  good  sense  to 
try  to  get  out  by  the  way  he  came  in. 

Lobsters  are  by  no  means  so  plentiful  round  these 
coasts  as  they  used  to  be,  no  doubt  because  it  is  only 
comparatively  lately  that  the  law  has  troubled  to  protect 
them  ;  and  the  greater  number  of  those  sold  at  the  shops 
come  from  Scandinavia.  Nearly  three-quarters  of  a 
million  fish  are  imported  from  there  every  year.  Scot- 
land, however,  still  seems  to  maintain  her  position  as  a 
lobster  country,  and  the  Orkneys  and  the  Hebrides  send 
from  one  to  two  hundred  thousand  fish  in  the  course  of  a 
twelvemonth  to  Billingsgate. 

The  canned  lobsters,  apart  from  those  from  Scandi- 
navia, come  from  Newfoundland  and  British  Columbia. 
Latterly  South  Africa  has  also  embarked  in  the  tinned- 
lobster  trade,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  Cape  Colony 
will  not  stop  at  lobsters,  but  will,  in  years  to  come, 
develop  into  one  of  the  world^s  great  fishing  centres. 
Why  not  ?  It  has  hundreds  of  miles  of  coast-line ;  its 
latitude  is  about  the  same  as  that  of  Western  Australia 
or  Queensland ;  above  all,  along  the  bank  that  runs  out 
from  Cape  Agulhas,  is  the  end  of  the  cold  current  which 
sweeps  down  the  east  coast  from  Madagascar,  and  which 
ensures  a  perennial  and  bountiful  supply  of  fish. 

The  chief  Norwegian  lobster  export  centres  are  Bergen 
and  Christiansund,  which  two  towns  form  the  limits  of  a 
curved  line  of  the  oldest  and  perhaps  most  productive 

168 


CRABS,  AND  WHELKS 

lobster-grounds  in  the  world.  Here  thousands  of  small 
boats  are  at  work  during  the  greater  part  of  the  year,  for 
there  are  still  few  restrictions  in  regard  to  this  fishery, 
though  they  are  now  being  increased;  the  bulk  of  the 
Norwegian  lobsters,  however,  are  caught  between  March 
and  September.  Most  local  by-laws  forbid  the  taking 
of  spawning  fish,  and  of  those  which  measure  less  than 
eight  inches  from  "beak"  to  tail. 

There  is  no  inducement  to  the  fishermen  to  take  small 
fish,  for  the  large  ones  are  generally  plentiful  enough ; 
the  infant  lobsters,  moreover,  are  very  careful  to  be  out 
of  the  way.  When  a  little  one  leaves  its  mother  its  shell 
is  still  unformed,  and  its  body  therefore  unprotected,  and, 
while  in  this  condition,  it  is  liable  to  be  snapped  up  by 
the  first  cod  or  conger  that  comes  along ;  and  if  it  should 
attempt  to  remain  in  a  lobster  colony  it  may  expect  to  be 
eaten  by  adult  fish  of  its  own  species ;  therefore  it  wisely 
swims  away  to  the  shallows,  finds  a  strong  position  for 
itself  in  a  rock-crevice,  and  there  remains  till  its  shell 
hardens  and  the  animal  can  return  to  open  water  without 
fear.  Every  year  it  will  go  back  to  this  or  a  similar 
hiding-place,  for  lobsters  lose  their  shells  annually,  and 
are,  for  three  or  four  days,  defenceless ;  and  it  is  during 
this  shell-less  period  that  much  of  their  growth  takes 
place.  From  the  time  a  shell  begins  to  re-form  till  it  is 
quite  hard,  the  lobster  is  said  to  be  "  soft,"  and  if  one 
finds  its  ways  into  the  trap  it  is  thrown  out  again,  for 
the  fishermen  believe  it  to  be  poisonous.  This  is  un- 
likely, although  an  animal  that  is  about  to  cast  its  shell  is 
undoubtedly  sickly,  and  can  scarcely  be  wholesome  as  food. 

169 


THE   CATCHING   OF  LOBSTERS 

The  pots  are  generally  roped  together,  half  a  dozen  or 
a  dozen  at  a  time ;  a  weight  or  a  stone  is  put  into  each, 
and  one  after  another  is  allowed  to  sink  ;  to  the  last  one  of 
the  series  a  buoy-line  is  tied  and  its  upper  end  fastened 
to  a  cork  or  keg.  Sometimes  the  fish  are  so  plentiful  in 
one  spot  as  to  keep  a  large  fleet  of  boats  occupied  the 
whole  day  in  setting  the  tackle,  and  the  catches  are 
brought  ashore  literally  by  the  boat-load. 

A  cargo  of  live  lobsters  are  not  the  most  desirable  of 
companions  in  a  small  boat ;  an  animal  that  has  eight 
legs,  and  fangs  like  pincers,  is  a  sort  of  thing  one  likes  to 
keep  at  a  distance ;  for  a  nip  of  a  lobster  is  rather  like  a 
burn  from  a  hot  iron.  The  legs  are  a  very  variable  num- 
ber, for  the  lobster  seems  to  have  power  to  part  with  one 
when  he  likes ;  take  him  by  the  claw  and  he  will  wriggle 
away,  leaving  the  limb  in  your  hand  rather  than  allow 
himself  to  be  captured.  One  of  the  most  curious  facts 
about  the  fish  is  its  extreme  sensitiveness  to  loud  noises ; 
if  a  gun  be  fired  close  to  it,  it  will  shed  some  of  its  claws 
immediately,  and  the  same  thing  will  often  happen  during 
a  thunderstorm.  These  limbs  grow  again  in  course  of 
time. 

A  very  close  relative  of  the  lobster  is  the  cray-fish  or 
craw-fish,  which  most  of  us,  as  children,  have  caught  in 
the  rivers.  Most  of  this  species  are  small,  but  those 
of  the  Indian  rivers  as  well  as  the  celebrated  Tasmanian 
cray  are  very  large,  and  are  eagerly  sought  by  the  local 
fishermen. 

Far  more  variety  exists  where  the  crab  is  concerned 
than  among  the  lobsters.  In  common  with  the  lobsters 

170 


CRABS,  AND  WHELKS 

it  has  four  pairs  of  legs,  and  a  fifth  pair  which  are  con- 
verted into  nippers.  Many  naturalists  are  of  opinion, 
from  the  shape  of  its  feet,  that  it  is  properly  a  land 
animal ;  and  this  argument  is  strengthened  by  the  fact 
that  certain  varieties  live  entirely  on  land.  The  common 
crab  is  nearly  always  a  deep-water  fish,  except  where,  as 
for  example,  on  the  Cornish  coast,  the  deep  rock-pools 
on  the  shore  promise  it  reasonable  immunity  from  tres- 
passers ;  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  most  of  the  in- 
edible crabs,  the  spider,  the  red  crab,  etc.,  many  of  which 
are  never  seen  except  on  board  a  fishing-boat,  when  they 
have  allowed  themselves  to  be  scooped  up  by  a  dredge, 
or  have  got  themselves  caught  on  a  cod-hook. 

For  some  reason  or  other  most  of  these  fish  seem  to 
be  inedible,  for,  beyond  the  common  crab  and  its  little 
shore  brother,  no  British  crabs  are  ever  eaten.  The 
others  are  nevertheless  valuable  as  bait,  and  though  they 
are  not  regarded  as  a  special  bait-fishery  like  mussels  or 
whelks,  the  shrimpers  contrive  to  do  good  business  with 
a  very  large  quantity  of  them. 

One  of  the  finest  bait-crabs  is  undoubtedly  the  hermit, 
or  as  the  fishermen  call  it  the  "farmer,""  for  its  soft, 
unprotected  body  is  a  great  temptation  to  all  fish. 
Hermits  may  be  picked  up  on  some  beaches  at  low  tide 
after  rough  weather,  but  the  majority  of  those  used  for 
bait  are  bought  of  the  dredgers,  for  whether  they  inter- 
fere with  oysters  or  not,  they  are  always  found  in  large 
numbers  where  oysters  most  do  congregate.  While  the 
upper  part  of  the  animal  is  as  well  protected  by  shell 
and  nippers  as  that  of  the  other  crabs,  the  lower  is  quite 

171 


THE   CATCHING   OF   LOBSTERS 

soft  and  pulpy.  Guided  by  the  marvellous  instinct  of 
self-protection,  the  little  creature,  as  soon  as  it  can  fend 
for  itself,  seeks  out  some  small  shell  into  which  it  can 
fit  the  defenceless  portion  of  its  body,  and,  as  it  grows, 
it  abandons  the  shell  in  favour  of  a  larger  one,  changing 
its  abode  periodically  till  it  comes  to  full  size  and  can 
fill  the  shell  of  a  very  large  whelk. 

One  day  I  persuaded  a  hermit  that  was  trying  to  crawl 
away  through  a  port-hole,  to  come  out  of  his  shell,  and 
then  dropped  him  into  a  bucket  of  sea- water  with  his 
own  whelk-shell  and  another  a  size  smaller ;  he  crawled 
to  the  smaller  one,  examined  it  closely,  but  did  not 
attempt  to  "  fit  it  on " ;  after  a  minute's  hesitation  he 
pushed  it  contemptuously  away,  moved  over  to  the  larger 
shell  and,  after  a  brief  hesitation,  back-watered  into  it, 
drew  in  his  horns  and  settled  down  to  sleep  comfortably. 
In  some  parts  of  the  world — Keeling  Island,  for  instance 
— these  hermits  are  to  be  seen  waddling  about  on  land. 

Talking  of  land-crabs,  the  largest  and  most  extra- 
ordinary, as  well  as  the  most  valuable  kind,  is  the  Birgos 
or  purse  crab,  which  is  from  two  to  three  feet  long  and 
is  an  inhabitant  of  the  East  Indian  Islands.  This  animal 
pays  a  daily  visit  to  the  sea,  for  the  purpose  of  moistening 
its  antennas,  but  spends  the  rest  of  its  time  in  its  nest 
which  is  made  at  the  root  of  a  tree — generally  a  cocoa- 
nut  palm.  It  burrows  a  large  hole  in  the  ground  and 
lines  it  thickly  with  cocoa-nut  fibre,  thereby  laying  up 
a  vast  store  of  that  useful  material  for  the  natives  to 
avail  themselves  of.  As  food  it  is  pronounced  excellent 
by  Europeans,  but  what  is  of  more  consequence  to  the 

172 


CRABS,  AND   WHELKS 

Malay  fishermen  is  its  oil;  each  adult  contains  a  huge 
lump  of  fat  which  yields  a  quart  of  pure  oil.  Whether 
these  crabs  actually  climb  the  trees  after  the  nuts  on 
which  they  live  is  a  disputed  point  which  does  not  come 
within  our  province  to  settle. 

Another  remarkable  crab  and,  from  the  fisherman's 
point  of  view,  the  only  useless  one,  is  the  glass  crab  of 
the  tropical  seas ;  this  creature  is  transparent  and,  but 
for  its  staring,  blue-black  eyes,  would  be  invisible  in  the 
water. 

All  readers  may  not  be  aware  that  there  are  such  things 
as  fresh-water  crabs,  quite  distinct  from  the  cray-fish. 
They  are  to  be  found  in  the  Indian  rivers  as  well  as  in 
many  of  those  of  South  Europe ;  in  the  latter  they  are 
caught  with  pots  similar  to  lobster-traps ;  the  carapace  or 
upper  shell  is  almost  square,  and  the  antennae  are 
curiously  short. 

Here  in  England  crabbing  is  scarcely  a  trade  by  itself, 
but  is  rather  pursued  in  slack  or  leisure  time ;  the  Cornish 
pilchard-fishers,  for  instance,  fill  in  their  intervals  with 
such  work.  The  most  commonly  used  tackle  is  an  iron 
hoop  with  two  diametrical  cords,  crossing  at  right  angles  ; 
dependent  from  the  hoop  is  a  net-bag  which  bellies  out 
till  the  circumference  is  nearly  twice  that  of  the  hoop. 
The  fisherman  baits  the  trap  with  fish — generally  ray — 
fastens  a  short  bit  of  rope  handle-wise  across  the  frame, 
and  lowers  the  pot  by  a  long  cord  that  is  tied  to  the 
middle  of  the  handle.  When  he  feels  the  hoop  touch  the 
bottom  he  raises  it  again  about  a  foot,  so  as  to  give  free 
play  to  the  net,  and  then  makes  his  end  fast  to  a  buoy  or 

173 


THE   CATCHING  OF  LOBSTERS 

to  his  boat.  For  small-crab  fishing  less  care  is  needed ; 
the  pots  are  let  down  in  a  series,  left  for  some  hours  and 
then  pulled  up  again,  and  the  catches  thus  made  are 
sometimes  enormous;  I  have  seen  as  many  small  crabs 
in  one  pot  as  would  fill  a  peck  measure.  By  small  crabs 
I  mean  such  as  just  come  within  legal  limit,  for  the  law 
is  very  sharp  nowadays  on  the  crabbers ;  no  fish  that 
measures  less  than  four  and  a  quarter  inches  in  length 
may  be  taken ;  fishermen  are  also  forbidden  to  take 
spawners,  and  crabs  whose  shell  has  not  hardened ;  for 
these  fish  assume  a  new  shell  every  year  just  as  the 
lobsters  do. 

I  spoke  of  crabs  as  bait.  Whelks  and  crabs  "se 
mangent  entre  eux  " ;  there  are  few  things  the  one  likes  so 
much  as  a  taste  of  the  other ;  but  the  odds  are  in  favour 
of  the  crab,  for  it  is  only  when  his  shell  is  soft,  or  after  he 
is  dead,  that  the  whelk  gets  a  fair  chance  at  him.  The 
fisherman  comes  along  and,  like  the  stork  that  settled  the 
dispute  between  the  frog  and  the  mouse  by  eating  the 
pair  of  them,  catches  the  crabs  and  then  uses  them  as 
bait  to  catch  the  whelks.  This  method  of  whelking  by 
means  of  lines  is  the  one  least  commonly  known,  and  we 
must  leave  the  consideration  of  pots  to  glance  at  it. 

Whelk-lines,  generally  termed  "  trots "  or  "  bulters  " 
(not  to  be  confused  with  the  "bulters"  mentioned  in 
Chapter  IV),  are  great  favourites  with  the  Thames-mouth 
fishermen.  Each  main  line  has  short  lines  (called 
"  snoods  ")  tied  at  right  angles  to  it,  at  intervals  of  a  few 
yards,  and  every  short  line  has  twenty  tiny  crabs  fastened 
to  it,  each  about  six  inches  apart  from  the  other.  This 

174 


CRABS,  AND   WHELKS 

tackle  is  shot  in  the  same  manner  as  the  ordinary  long 
lines,  the  far  end  buoyed,  and  the  other  either  buoyed  or 
kept  in  the  boat. 

In  a  very  short  time  the  lines  are  alive  with  whelks,  for 
their  movements  are  quicker  than  those  of  land  gastero- 
pods,  and  their  appetites  more  ravenous.  They  fasten 
themselves  on  the  unresisting  crabs  and,  with  their  power- 
ful, toothed  tongues,  begin  to  eat  through  the  shell ; 
when  once  they  have  taken  the  bait  nothing  will  shake 
them  off,  and  the  little  fools  fall  victims  to  their  own 
greed.  The  strength  of  a  whelk  is  enormous ;  pick  one 
up  when  he  is  crawling  about  the  deck  and  try  to  hold 
him  from  withdrawing  into  his  shell ;  you  cannot  do  it 
once  in  a  hundred  times.  No  wonder  then  that  the 
pulling  up  of  the  trots  does  not  shake  off  any  of  the 
catch  from  their  prey. 

It  may  be  surmised,  from  their  being  caught  in  such 
large  numbers,  that  whelks  are  very  prolific ;  they  are. 
When  do  you  ever  go  to  the  seaside  without  seeing  the 
spawn  lying  about?  It  is  contained  in  those  irregular 
clumps  or  bunches  of  white,  spongy-looking  globules  that 
are  often  taken  for  seaweed.  Dog-whelk  spawn  is  generally 
seen  only  in  deep  water  and,  instead  of  being  bunched 
together,  every  capsule  is  distinct ;  it  is  generally  thrown 
on  stones  and  rocks,  and  looks  like  a  beautiful  yellow 
growth  or  lichen,  in  shape  and  size  not  unlike  heather 
blossom. 

Whclking  is  a  trade  by  itself ;  and  it  is  a  very  lucrative 
one,  partly  because  many  men  are  frightened  at  the 
apparently  low  prices  paid  for  the  fish,  and  so  steer  clear 

175 


THE   CATCHING   OF   LOBSTERS 

of  it,  and  allow  the  few  to  make  their  profit  undisturbed  ; 
and  partly  because  whelks  are  never  out  of  season  either 
as  food  or  bait.  They  are  sold  principally  to  the  line- 
fishers  of  the  north  and  east,  not  by  the  cart-  or  ship- 
load like  mussels,  but  by  the  bushel  or  the  bag. 

The  most  renowned  whelkers  are  the  Norfolk  men,  and 
where  local  feeling  is  not  too  strong  against  such  a 
measure,  they  carry  on  what  might  otherwise  be  a 
neglected  industry  in  other  eastern  and  southern  fishing 
grounds  besides  their  own.  As  a  rule  they  are  not  inter- 
fered with,  for  though  fishermen  are  proverbially  tenacious 
of  their  rights,  they  are  seldom  churlish.  But  the  inter- 
lopers must  mind  their  manners ;  you  may  see  a  hundred 
pounds'"  worth  of  whelk -gear  deliberately  sunk  by  the 
lawful  tenants  of  the  ground  if  it  has  been  shot  so  as 
to  do  harm  to  the  local  industry.  Generally,  however, 
the  whelkers  are  regarded  as  harmless  lunatics  who 
"whelk"  because  they  are  fit  for  nothing  else. 

One  of  the  funniest  things  I  ever  saw  in  connection 
with  the  fishermen  was  their  contempt  for  some  whelkers'1 
boats  brought  to  a  southern  fishing  town  from  the 
Norfolk  coast ;  they  were  beautiful  boats,  too :  large 
enough  for  lifeboats,  and,  when  rigged  with  a  big  lug- 
sail,  they  could  almost  fly  through  the  water.  Then  why 
the  contempt  ?  Because  they  had  been  brought  down  by 
rail !  What  good  could  any  boat  be  that  had  arrived  in 
such  an  ignominious  fashion  ?  Scarcely  any  of  these  good 
fellows  had  ever  been  in  a  train — save  one  old  dear  who 
went  to  London  once  upon  a  time,  and  while  there  (not 
being  able  to  read)  "  steered  "  himself  about  by  means  of 

176 


CRABS,  AND  WHELKS 

a  pocket-compass  and  the  weather-cocks,  and  whose 
method  of  finding  a  given  spot  was  to  "shape  a  course 
nor'-east,"  etc.  After  a  day  or  two  he  shook  the  dust  of 
London  off  his  feet,  because  he  was  sure  that  wherever 
he  went  there  was  always  a  policeman  following  him ; 
whereas  he  "  knowed  he  shouldn't  be  took  for  a  thief 
down  home." 

These  despised  little  boats  go  off  every  day  with  the 
ebb  tide,  and  on  reaching  water  whose  depth  at  high  tide 
would  be  about  five  fathoms,  make  ready  to  clear  and  re- 
lower  the  gear.  The  pulling  up  of  the  nearest  buoy-line 
drags  up  the  first  few  of  the  series  of  pots ;  these  are 
emptied  one  by  one,  and  the  cord  is  hauled  and  hauled 
till  the  whole  row  of  pots — generally  about  fifty  in 
number — lie  empty  in  the  boat.  Then  you  can  see  that, 
attached  to  the  buoy-lines,  is  a  main  or  ground-rope, 
about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  length,  along  which  the  pots 
are  threaded  at  intervals  of  from  three  to  five  fathoms. 
The  pots  themselves  are  far  more  elaborate  than  those 
used  for  crabs  or  lobsters ;  the  upper  part  is  a  dome  made 
of  thin  strips  of  iron,  and  its  base  is  a  perforated  iron 
disc  from  which  depends  a  little  net  bag  capable  of 
holding  two  gallons.  Round  the  dome,  a  cord — the 
"  rattling  line  " — is  laced  loosely,  and  acts  as  a  ladder  up 
which  the  whelks  climb  to  reach  the  bait  that  is  lying  on 
the  sieve-like  base,  through  which  they  will  fall  into  the 
net  below. 

The  pots  are  soon  rebaited  and  thrown  over  again,  and 
the  boat  sails  away  to  her  next  buoy.  You  can  see  now 
why  such  a  capacious  craft  must  be  employed  ;  one  series 
M  177 


LOBSTERS,   CRABS,  AND   WHELKS 

of  pots  if  full  would  yield  about  twelve  bushels  of  whelks  ; 
and  a  fair  average  catch  from  five  series  would  be  forty 
bushels.  The  fish  are  stowed  in  bags  and  sent  away  by 
rail. 

It  may  be  asked,  what  need  is  there  for  making  a 
special  fishery  of  whelks  when  the  dredgers  land  such  a 
great  number  ?  The  dredgers  do  indeed,  when  their  own 
catches  are  poor,  pick  out  the  whelks  and  put  them  aside 
for  selling;  but  it  is  rather  like  a  private  householder 
saving  his  empty  wine-bottles  for  sale;  the  proceeds  of 
small  quantities  are  so  ridiculously  low  that  only  a  miserly 
or  very  poor  man  would  trouble  to  keep  them ;  and  the 
dredger  who  can  earn  from  six  to  ten  shillings  a  day  is 
not  likely  to  neglect  his  own  work  for  the  sake  of  a  gain 
of  about  fivepence-halfpenny. 

Whelks  as  seen  in  London  on  a  costermonger's  barrow 
would,  I  think,  only  tempt  a  very  hungry  man,  or  one 
whose  appetite  had  a  strange  bias ;  yet  these  fish  are  a 
favourite  food  among  the  fisher  people,  and,  from  the 
fact  that  a  man  will  often  do  a  hard  day's  work  on  nothing 
else,  they  must  needs  be  nourishing.  Boiled  the  moment 
they  come  out  of  the  sea,  and  eaten  hot  with  a  sea- 
appetite,  they  are  certainly  very  good,  and,  inasmuch  as 
the  intestine  can  be  removed,  are  much  safer  and  cleaner 
eating  than  crabs  or  lobsters.  There  is  a  member  of  this 
family,  called  the  red  whelk,  which  is  very  tasty  but,  ac- 
cording to  the  fishermen,  very  disastrous  in  its  effect  on 
the  eater ;  they  say  that  a  plateful  of  such  fish  will  make 
a  man  absolutely  intoxicated. 


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CHAPTER  XV 
THE  FISHERIES  OF  THE  FAR  EAST 

China,  Japan,  Siam,  etc. — A  fish-eating  people— Fresh-water  fishing — 
Chinese  angling— Fishing  with  the  help  of  cormorants— How  the 
birds  are  trained— Good  and  bad  divers— Two  birds  to  one  fish— 
The  dip-net— River-fishing  by  hand— Sea  fisheries  ;  the  junk  and 
the  lorcha— A  Portuguese  colony — "Archers  "  and  "  fighting-fish  " 
—Japan's  fisheries— The  salmon  and  trout 

UNDER  the  above  heading  we  may  include  the 
fisheries  of  China  and  Japan,  together  with  those 
of  Siam,  Annam,  and  Malacca. 

It  may  not  be  easy  for  us  Europeans  to  realise  that  the 
inhabitants  of  these  countries  are  even  more  a  fishing 
people  than  ourselves.  Nevertheless  they  are.  The  fact 
could  doubtless  be  demonstrated  and  explained  in  scores 
of  different  ways ;  but  it  is  sufficient  for  us  to  remember 
that  (1)  the  people  of  the  Far  East  are,  as  a  whole,  of 
a  somewhat  timid  disposition,  and  consequently  less  in- 
clined to  take  to  hunting  than  the  men  of  the  West ;  (2) 
for  the  most  part  their  climate  is  against  the  consump- 
tion of  much  flesh  meat ;  and,  in  any  case,  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  inhabitants  would  abstain  from  it  on 
religious  grounds.  Hence  a  disposition  to  live  on  vege- 
table produce ;  and  to  eke  out  or  savourise  such  diet  with 
fish  would  surely  be  instinct  to  a  seaboard  people.  Japan 

179 


THE  FISHERIES  OF  THE  FAR  EAST 

is  surrounded  by  water ;  Malacca  and  Corea  nearly  so ; 
China,  Siam,  and  Annam  are  washed  by  the  sea  as  well 
as  drained  by  huge,  fish-teeming  rivers ;  and  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  three  last-named  have,  for  centuries,  cultivated 
the  art  of  fresh-water  fishing  to  an  infinitely  greater 
extent  than  can  be  seen  in  any  other  part  of  the  world. 
Fish  is  cheap,  moreover,  and  Easterns  are  economically 
inclined.  Next  to  rice,  therefore,  fish  must  be  regarded 
as  the  staple  food  of  these  temperate  folk,  and  the  pro- 
curing of  it  as  one  of  their  most  important  occupations. 

Fresh-water  fishing  as  carried  on  by  the  Chinese  is 
anything  but  a  laborious  industry;  on  the  other  hand 
it  offers  ample  opportunity  for  meditation  and  rest ;  and, 
as  a  large  proportion  of  the  population  spend  their  lives 
on  the  water,  they  have  not  far  to  look  for  their  dinner. 

The  approved  Celestial  method  of  angling  has  its 
peculiarities.  The  fisherman  provides  himself  with  two 
or  more  slender  bamboo  rods,  each  of  which  is  supplied 
with  rings  for  the  line  to  pass  through,  such  as  our  own 
rods  have,  and  also  with  a  homely  attempt  at  a  winch. 
His  lines  would  make  a  British  angler  envious ;  they  are 
of  the  finest  silk,  deftly  twisted,  and  scarcely  thicker  than 
a  hair ;  yet  of  wonderful  strength  and  durability.  His 
hooks  are  not  so  likely  to  be  coveted  by  Europeans,  for 
they  are  of  the  bent-pin  order,  being  destitute  of  barbs. 
Each  line  has  a  short  bit  of  wood  tied  on  to  it  in  place 
of  a  float,  fastened  only  by  one  end,  so  that  it  will  merely 
lie  on  the  water  instead  of  standing  perpendicularly. 

Seated  on  his  raft,  or  on  the  bank,  the  Chinaman  very 
methodically  prepares  for  his  morning^s  work.  With  the 

1 80 


THE  FISHERIES  OF  THE  FAR  EAST 

point  of  one  of  the  rods  he  first  carefully  separates  the 
weeds  and  leaves  on  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  brushes 
aside,  or  nicks  off,  the  heads  of  lotos  that  may  be  in  his 
way.  As  soon  as  he  sees  a  clear  field,  in  goes  his  first 
hook,  baited  with  a  fly ;  or,  if  ground-fishing,  probably 
with  a  strip  of  kid  or  morsel  of  paste.  Then  he  places 
the  butt  of  the  rod  in  a  holder  ready  prepared  and  pro- 
ceeds to  make  his  second  cast.  This  holder  is  a  short 
length  of  bamboo,  the  hollow  of  which  will  just  fit  the 
end  of  the  fishing-rod ;  and  is  driven  into  the  bank,  or 
lashed  to  the  side  of  the  raft,  so  that  it  will  keep  the  rod 
at  an  angle  of  about  thirty  degrees  to  the  water. 

But  how  this  casual  individual  ever  succeeds  in  catching 
anything  at  all  is  one  of  the  hidden  things.  Apparently 
he  is  asleep  half  his  time ;  we  do  not  see  him  make  any 
attempt  at  watching  bait  or  float,  or  at  playing  his  fish ; 
yet  he  seldom  pulls  up  the  line  without  there  being  a  fish 
at  the  end  of  it.  Above  all,  as  often  as  not  it  is  a  dace ; 
and  anglers  do  not  need  to  be  told  that  this  is  an 
exceedingly  sharp  biter  which  requires  to  be  struck 
immediately. 

Each  time  John  takes  a  fish  off  the  hook  he  stoops  and 
seems  to  put  it  back  into  the  water  at  his  feet.  But  if 
you  watch  him  when  he  leaves  off  work  you  will  see  him 
drag  out  a  large  bamboo  basket  that  has  been  kept  in 
the  water  with  only  the  rim  showing  above  the  surface. 
As  the  basket  comes  up,  the  water  naturally  is  drained  off', 
and  the  Chinaman  has  fresh  fish  for  sale  or  private  con- 
sumption, instead  of  flabby  things  that  have  been  exposed 
to  several  hours  of  scorching  sun. 

181 


THE  FISHERIES  OF  THE  FAR  EAST 

A  more  characteristic  and  better -known  system  of 
fishing  among  the  Mongols  is  with  the  aid  of  cormorants. 
Anyone  who  has  ever  taken  the  trouble  to  watch  one  of 
these  curious  birds  dive  must  see  that  they  are  capable 
of  being  made  splendid  allies  to  the  fisherman ;  and  the 
Mongolian  peoples  have  succeeded  in  taming  and  training 
the  creatures  till  they  can  be  relied  upon  to  fill  their 
master's  bag  in  a  very  short  space  of  time.  Early  in  the 
seventeenth  century  an  attempt  was  made  to  introduce 
cormorant-fishing  into  England  as  a  sport,  but  it  does 
not  seem  to  have  met  with  much  success. 

When  the  bird  is  quite  young  a  ring,  or  a  collar  of 
grass,  is  fastened  round  its  neck,  so  tightly  that,  though 
it  can  still  breathe,  it  can  only  swallow  a  very  small 
article.  A  cord,  or  sometimes  a  pair  of  reins,  is  attached 
to  the  collar  and,  with  much  coaxing  or  smacking,  the 
master  sends  the  little  one  into  the  water.  Ordinarily  its 
instinct  will  prompt  it  to  dive  and  to  seize  in  its  bill  as 
large  a  fish  as  it  can  lift ;  and  as  soon  as  it  comes  to  the 
surface  it  is  smartly  hauled  in,  informed  that  it  is  a  good 
bird,  and  made  to  deliver  up  its  prey.  As  it  progresses 
in  knowledge  the  cord  is  dispensed  with;  and  the  bird, 
still  tightly  collared,  has  to  learn  to  enter  and  leave  the 
water  at  a  sign  of  the  hand ;  and  when  its  education  is 
complete,  the  collar  is  sometimes  removed  as  well,  by 
which  time  no  well-bred  cormorant  would  think  of 
swallowing  a  fish  unless  its  master  had  given  permission. 

The  cormorant  is  usually  started  from  a  boat,  or  a 
moored  raft,  a  long,  low-lying  construction  made  of  the 
eternal  bamboo,  and  propelled  by  one  paddle.  Each 

182 


Stereo  Copyright,  Underwood  &  U. 


London  and  New  York 


FISHING  WITH  CORMORANTS  IN  CHINA 

A  characteristic  method  of  fishing  among  the  Mongols  is  with  the  aid  of  cormorants. 
These  birds  are  capable  of  being  made  splendid  allies  to  the  fishermen,  who  have  tamed 
and  trained  them  till  they  can  be  relied  upon  to  fill  their  master's  bag  in  a  very  short 
time. 


THE  FISHERIES  OF  THE   FAII  EAST 

fisherman  has  about  half  a  dozen  birds — among  them, 
perhaps,  a  couple  of  "apprentices'1 — and  these  have  all 
arranged  themselves  in  a  row  at  one  end  of  the  raft  with 
their  eyes  solemnly  fixed  on  their  master.  With  a  wave 
of  the  hand  or  a  snap  of  the  fingers,  he  summons  the 
first ;  it  waddles  up  to  him  and  jumps  on  to  his  open 
hand.  Petting  it  and  gently  smoothing  its  feathers,  the 
fisherman  seems  to  whisper  confidentially  to  the  bird ; 
then  places  it  on  the  edge  of  the  raft  and  stands  by  to 
await  developments. 

Then  the  cormorant  dips  its  bill  into  the  water  once  or 
twice,  jerks  its  head  from  side  to  side,  gives  a  shake  to  its 
tail,  and  suddenly  disappears.  Meanwhile  the  other  birds, 
huddled  together  in  a  perfectly  straight  line,  look  on,  ex- 
pectant of  a  summons  from  their  master.  After  an  inter- 
val of  about  a  quarter  of  a  minute  the  diver  reappears  at 
some  distance  from  where  it  went  in,  holding  in  its  mouth 
a  struggling  fish  of  the  dace  or  roach  tribes.  It  swims 
over  to  the  raft,  springs  aboard,  hops  lightly  on  to  the 
fisherman's  knee,  and  is  relieved  of  its  burden ;  and  the 
master,  having  placed  the  fish  in  the  basket,  goes  through 
the  same  endearments  as  before,  and  again  puts  the  bird 
on  the  raft-edge.  The  same  thing  happens  again,  and 
perhaps  three  or  four  times  over,  till,  thinking  the  bird 
has  done  enough,  the  fisherman  once  more  caresses  it  and 
deposits  it  in  the  middle  of  the  raft ;  this  is  a  sign  that 
the  faithful  creature  may  take  a  rest ;  and,  full  of  pride 
at  its  exploits,  it  struts  away  to  the  opposite  side,  where 
it  takes  up  a  position  on  the  rail  and  stares  superciliously 
at  its  friends  that  are  still  waiting  their  turn. 

183 


THE  FISHERIES  OF  THE  FAR  EAST 

Bird  Number  2  is  beckoned ;  affecting  ceremony  as 
before ;  but,  when  its  head  comes  above  water,  its  bill  is 
still  empty  and  it  looks  hesitatingly  towards  the  raft, 
though  not  daring  to  approach  it  without  leave.  The 
master  shakes  his  head  reproachfully  and  points  down- 
wards, and  the  bird  dives  resignedly.  This  time  it  is 
down  longer,  yet  once  more  comes  up  empty-mouthed ; 
but  the  fisherman  is  inexorable  and  the  cormorant  is 
bidden  to  dive  a  third  time — and  a  third  time  comes  up 
with  nothing.  Celestial  patience  cannot  brook  this; 
clearly  bird  Number  2  is  a  duffer;  the  man  beckons  it 
out  of  the  water,  spanks  it  soundly  about  the  head,  and 
tosses  it  on  to  the  deck,  whence  it  waddles  shamefacedly 
away  and  takes  a  place  of  dishonour  at  the  end  of  the 
rank. 

Bird  Number  3  obeys  the  call  in  a  sprightly  fashion 
and  dives  the  moment  it  is  released,  without  any  useless 
preliminaries.  It  is  down  a  whole  minute  or  more. 
Then,  some  thirty  feet  from  the  raft,  the  surface  is  seen 
to  bubble  and  ripple,  and  suddenly  the  little  black  head 
rises  above  water ;  bird  Number  3  has  caught  some  kind 
of  salmon,  over  a  foot  long,  and  so  heavy  that  every  now 
and  then  it  drags  the  plucky  head  under  again.  The 
fisherman  mutters  a  cheering  word  and  snaps  his  fingers 
in  the  direction  of  bird  Number  4,  which  is  started  off 
in  the  usual  manner.  4,  however,  does  not  dive;  it 
swims  straight  at  3  and,  seizing  the  river-monster  near 
the  tail,  sets  &s  mind  and  bill  at  rest ;  and  the  industrious 
pair  paddle  steadily  for  the  raft,  supporting  the  weight 
between  them.  Even  now  there  is  a  danger  lest  the  fish 

184 


THE   FISHERIES  OF  THE  FAR  EAST 

should  escape,  to  which  the  fisherman  puts  an  end  by 
leaning  over  as  soon  as  the  birds  come  within  reach  and 
relieving  them  of  their  burden. 

When  it  is  the  turn  of  the  "  apprentices  "  to  go  in,  the 
procedure  is  different.  Probably  the  cord  is  fastened  on, 
and  the  bird  is  driven  in  by  dint  of  much  clapping  of 
hands  on  the  part  of  the  fisherman.  Then,  perhaps, 
instead  of  diving,  the  cormorant  will  merely  stare  round 
in  bewildered  fashion  till  the  master,  with  a  long  rod, 
guides  it  away  from  the  boat,  and,  if  it  still  remain 
obstinate,  plunges  it  bodily  under  with  the  end  of  the 
stick.  Some  men,  in  addition  to  bridling  the  young 
birds,  fasten  a  cord  round  the  body,  leaving  a  loop  like  a 
kettle-handle  at  the  top  to  serve  the  purpose  of  lifting 
the  creature  in  and  out. 

When  this  species  of  fishing  is  carried  on  by  night,  a 
brazier  or  a  lighted  torch  is  fixed  at  one  end  of  the  raft, 
where  it  not  only  enables  the  fisherman  to  see  what  he  is 
doing,  but  also  acts  as  a  bait,  appealing  to  the  everlast- 
ing curiosity  of  the  fish  which  rise  "to  worship  the 
delusive  flame,"  as  Shelley  expresses  it. 

A  third  variety  of  bank  and  raft  fishing  is  by  means  of 
a  very  large  dip-net,  made  of  twine  or  spruce-fibre.  The 
gear,  weighted  with  stones,  is  lowered  by  a  single  rope 
which  runs  out  over  the  head  of  a  wooden  lever  and  is 
left  down  for  an  hour  or  so ;  at  the  end  of  that  time  the 
lever  is  weighed  up  till  the  mouth  of  the  net  comes  just 
above  water,  then  the  fishermen,  armed  with  small 
landing-nets  fitted  to  long  handles,  proceed  at  leisure  to 
bale  out  the  contents. 

185 


THE  FISHERIES  OF  THE  FAR  EAST 

Yet  another  way,  the  most  primitive  of  all,  is  by  catch- 
ing the  fish  with  the  hands — a  practice  easily  possible  in 
shallow  streams  and  pools  that  are  literally  alive  with 
fish.  The  operator  wades  in  hip-deep,  and  this  at  once 
stirs  up  the  fish  that  are  on  the  bottom,  which  is  just  the 
reverse  of  what  the  wader  wants ;  and,  as  a  counterblast, 
he  slaps  and  splashes  the  water  till  they  go  down  again 
and  hide  in  the  mud ;  whereupon,  using  his  feet  as  feelers, 
he  coolly  stoops  and  picks  the  fish  out  of  it,  filling  the 
bag  that  hangs  on  his  shoulder  in  a  very  few  minutes. 

There  are  few  specially  noteworthy  features  of  the 
Chinese  salt-water  fisheries.  All  the  way  down  the  coast 
of  the  Yellow  and  China  Seas,  fleets  of  junks  manned  by 
Coolies,  Chinamen,  and  Lascars,  are  to  be  seen  daily ; 
they  do  not  go  far  from  land,  partly  because  there  is 
little  need,  partly  through  centuries  of  habit  of  giving  a 
wide  berth  to  Japanese  and  Malay  pirates. 

The  junk,  without  doubt  the  oldest-fashioned  craft  in 
the  world,  is  a  not  unpicturesque,  flat-bottomed  vessel  with 
one  sail,  similar  to  our  lug-sail  in  shape,  but  ribbed  all  the 
way  down  with  parallel  cane  yards,  which  apparently  can 
be  used  for  reefing.  Some  of  the  more  go-ahead  boat- 
builders  have  during  the  past  century  attempted  to  im- 
prove on  the  junk  by  the  construction  of  the  lorcha,  a 
boat  made  after  the  European  model,  though  still  rigged 
like  the  older  vessel. 

At  and  round  Macao,  on  the  Canton  River,  is  a  colony 
of  Portuguese,  founded  as  far  back  as  1586,  and  similar 
to  that  mentioned  in  Chapter  X,  in  so  far  as  many  of  its 

1 86 


THE  FISHERIES  OF  THE  FAR  EAST 

people  are  hereditary  fishermen  who  have  partially  intro- 
duced European  methods  of  working,  and  have  made 
themselves  the  centre  of  the  fishing-trade  for  many  miles 
round. 

In  the  China  Sea  and  parts  of  the  Indian  Ocean  is  a 
remarkable  little  fish  known  as  the  "  archer,11  and  when- 
ever it  makes  its  appearance  in  the  net  it  is  jealously  set 
aside  in  a  pot  of  water  by  some  member  of  the  crew.  In 
their  idle  moments  the  men  will  even  angle  for  it  when 
they  are  sufficiently  far  from  land.  It  is  about  seven 
inches  long  and  has  a  wide,  ugly  mouth,  the  lower  jaw  of 
which  is  considerably  longer  than  the  upper ;  it  feeds  on 
flies  and  insects  and  has  an  almost  infallible  means  of 
catching  them.  Swimming  near  the  surface  it  watches  for 
the  approach  of  its  prey  and,  the  moment  this  comes  in 
sight,  squirts  a  jet  of  water  straight  at  it ;  this  manoeuvre 
brings  the  prize  down  to  the  surface,  and  all  the  archer 
has  to  do  is  to  swallow  it.  When  such  a  fish  is  caught,  it 
is  taken  home  and  kept  in  a  jar  as  a  household  play- 
thing, its  owner  amusing  himself  by  suspending  a  fly 
on  a  string  over  the  jar,  for  the  entertainment  of  its 
occupant. 

In  the  rivers  of  Siam  and  Annam  is  a  somewhat  smaller 
creature,  though  none  the  less  remarkable ;  the  "  fighting- 
fish,"  which  is  as  carefully  angled  for  and  treasured  as  the 
archer.  When  taken,  it  is  preserved  in  a  bowl  and  kept 
for  fighting.  Two  of  them,  let  loose  in  a  shallow  tank, 
will  afford  as  much  amusement  as  fighting-cocks  gave  to 
our  grandfathers ;  and,  like  them,  the  bystanders  bet 
heavily  on  the  issue  of  the  struggle.  In  Siam  such  fights 

187 


THE  FISHERIES  OF  THE  FAR  EAST 

are  specially  licensed  by  the  Government,  and  seem  to 
prove  a  fruitful  source  of  revenue. 

Japan,  more  ready  to  follow  Western  nations  than  its 
neighbours,  takes  her  fisheries  very  much  in  earnest.  The 
European  trawl-net  is  in  use,  as  also  the  various  forms  of 
seine,  though  we  cannot  expect  to  find  anything  answer- 
ing to  our  notions  of  a  smack  ;  for  the  Japanese  fishers 
have  no  medium  between  the  most  up-to-date  steam- 
trawler  and  the  old-fashioned  junk.  The  latter  is  slightly 
different  in  make  and  rig  from  the  Chinese  boat.  It  has 
no  bulwarks  beyond  a  shallow  plank ;  is  built  rather  high, 
and  has  immense  storing  accommodation  below  decks. 
At  the  very  top  of  the  mast  is  a  bamboo  yard  from 
which  hangs  the  sail,  plain,  oblong,  divided  from  top  to 
bottom,  and  so  long  that  it  almost  sweeps  the  deck. 
Another  very  common  fishing-boat  of  native  build, 
though  latterly  of  European  rig,  is  the  sampan. 

The  magurO)  a  large,  salmon-fleshed  fish,  the  cod, 
mackerel,  and  a  variety  of  sea-bream  called  the  tai,  are 
the  commoner  fish  taken  in  the  nets ;  the  last-named  is 
more  often  eaten  raw  than  cooked,  and  either  way  it  is 
very  appetising.  I  once  saw  the  tai  served  up  raw, 
sprinkled  with  vinegar  and  herbs ;  and  the  very  next 
course  was  the  same  fish  cooked, — stewed  in  a  sort  of 
soupe  au  vin. 

The  chief  fishing  ports  are  Hakodate,  Nagasaki,  and 
Yokohama;  in  fact,  till  1859,  Yokohama  had  no  other 
occupation  than  fishing. 

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THE  FISHERIES  OF  THE  FAR  EAST 

The  inshore  fisheries  include  weirs  of  a  sort,  together 
with  a  system  of  dip-nets  not  unlike  those  in  use  among 
the  Chinese  river-fishers.  The  fisherman  erects  a  rough 
scaffolding  above  the  water,  over  which  a  thatched  roof 
is  placed  as  a  shelter  from  the  sun ;  and  from  here  he 
lowers  a  huge,  oblong  net  which  is  drawn  into  concave 
form  by  cords,  and  kept  open  by  a  framework  made  of 
two  curved,  intersecting  poles.  Connected  with  the 
framework  is  a  wooden  lever,  by  means  of  which  the 
whole  net  can  be  quickly  weighed  out  of  the  water. 

As  soon  as  the  net  is  down,  the  fisherman  waits 
patiently  till  the  fish  collect  over  the  spot  where  he  has 
lowered  his  tackle,  and  then  suddenly  jerks  the  edges  of 
the  net  above  water ;  then,  like  the  Chinaman,  he  ladles 
his  catch  out  with  a  smaller  dip-net,  hauls  the  fish  up  to 
his  platform,  and  packs  them  away  in  his  basket. 

But  the  Japanese  are  by  no  means  mere  stay-at-home 
fishers ;  almost  all  the  Corean  coast-fishery  is  in  their 
hands,  and  sealing  boats  put  off  every  season  from 
Hakodate  for  the  Kurile  Islands  at  the  far  north,  and 
even  for  Kamchatka.  Moreover,  the  little  country's 
exportation  of  fish-oil  is  steadily  on  the  increase. 

In  their  river-fishing,  too,  Western  principles  have 
come  largely  into  use,  though  the  cormorant  is  still  very 
popular  among  the  peasantry  and  the  old-fashioned 
native  sportsmen.  Trout  are  found  abundantly  in  all  the 
streams,  and  in  the  north,  salmon  are  exceedingly  plenti- 
ful. In  angling  for  the  ai  (a  large  kind  of  trout)  and  the 
masU)  or  Japanese  salmon,  before  the  tackle  is  thrown, 
the  native  fishermen  catch  a  handful  of  small  fry,  some- 

189 


THE   FISHERIES  OF  THE  FAR  EAST 

thing  like  our  young  roach,  in  a  landing-net,  and  fastening 
a  string  to  each,  pull  them  up  and  down  in  the  water  to 
attract  the  larger  fish. 

The  Ishikari-gawa  is  the  favourite  salmon  river,  and 
its  reputation  has  now  become  so  great  as  to  cause  both 
English  and  American  sportsmen  to  make  periodical 
pilgrimages  to  it. 


190 


CHAPTER  XVI 

SOME  REMARKS   ON   THE  IRISH 
FISHERIES 

Comparative  poverty  of  the  western  fisheries — Possible  reasons 
— Present  state  of  the  Irish  fisheries — The  Irish  fisherman — 
Trawling  and  long-line  fishing — Congers,  sharks,  and  sea-cats 
— Trawling  on  rocky  ground — "  Man  overboard  !  "—Ling,  halibut, 
and  ray — Eels — Tory  Island. 

IF  one  had  space  and  leisure  to  dive  into  the  matter, 
there  are  doubtless  good  reasons  to  be  found  for  the 
fact  that  the  western  portions  of  the  United  Kingdom 
cannot  compare  with  those  of  the  east  for  productive 
fisheries.  Where  is  the  western  fishing  town  that  can 
be  mentioned  in  the  same  breath  with  Aberdeen,  Grimsby, 
Lowestoft,  Yarmouth,  or  even  Ramsgate?  Yet  the 
Irish  Sea,  the  Channels  and  the  Atlantic  generally  are 
surely  as  well  adapted  for  the  work  as  the  German 
Ocean ;  for  if  the  rainfall  be  greater,  the  wind  is  just 
as  favourable  to  the  smacks  as  it  is  on  the  east ;  often 
more  so. 

It  is  certainly  not  that  the  men  of  the  east  are  neces- 
sarily more  careful  over  money-matters  than  the  men  of 
the  west;  for  much  of  the  talk  about  the  "thrifty 
fisher-class "  is  so  much  foolish  cant ;  with  the  exception 

191 


SOME    REMARKS   ON 

of  the  Scotch,  and  of  the  Cornish  and  the  Welsh — who, 
by  the  way,  are  westerns — a  more  foolishly  improvident 
class  than  the  fishermen  scarcely  exists,  no  matter  which 
point  of  the  compass  they  come  from ;  if  a  trawler  earns 
ten  pounds  in  one  week,  the  chances  are  that  he  will  not 
have  a  halfpenny  by  the  end  of  the  next.  I  am  well 
aware  that  there  are  exceptions,  and  that  in  every  fishing 
town  there  are  generally  one  or  two  wealthy  men  who 
have  made  every  penny  of  their  money  in  the  boats. 

What  is  much  nearer  being  the  reason  is  that  the  per- 
centage of  Danish,  Saxon,  and  Jutish  blood  is  far  greater 
in  the  east,  and  that  for  one  western  Rolf  Ganger  or 
Ragna  Rough-breeks,  the  east  coast  can  produce  twenty 
Hengists,  and  Gorm  Ethelstans  and  Herewards  ;  and  that 
therefore  the  inclination  to  a  sea  life  is  far  stronger  in 
the  Yorkshire  man  or  the  Norfolk  man  than  it  is  in  the 
average  Kelt.  To  this  must  be  added  the  fact  that  the 
power  of  steady  work  is  sadly  wanting  in  some  of  the 
fishing  people  of  the  west ;  at  any  rate  among  the  Irish, 
Welsh,  and  Manx. 

Five-and-twenty  years  ago  the  fisheries  of  Ireland  were 
apparently  in  an  almost  hopeless  condition,  but  to-day 
things  are  certainly  on  the  mend.  Much  has  been  done. 
Government  has  built  piers  and  harbours,  has  made 
grants  or  loans  to  the  fishers,  and,  even  as  far  back 
as  1875,  had  begun  to  spend  large  sums  in  encouraging 
the  industry  generally.  If  you  ask  an  Irish  fisherman 
why  trade  is  so  bad  he  will  tell  you  that  the  mackerel 
have  all  gone  away,  and  that  the  Scotch  and  Devon- 
shire trawlers  have  broken  up  the  herring  shoals;  but 

192 


THE   IRISH  FISHERIES 

the  Board  of  Trade  reports  say  very  differently ;  to 
wit,  that  shoals  of  both  herring  and  mackerel  have  been 
allowed  to  pass  the  coasts  through  the  indolence  of  the 
fishermen  and  the  scarcity  of  nets ;  and  that,  till  the 
"  foreign "  trawlers  came,  soles,  which  often  abound 
round  there,  were  never  caught  at  all.  Twenty  years 
ago  lobsters  and  crabs  could  almost  have  been  shovelled 
on  board  the  smacks  round  the  west  coast  of  Ireland, 
and  such  may  still  be  the  case. 

Out  of  a  population  of  four  and  a  half  millions,  twelve 
thousand  people  are  now  engaged  in  fishing ;  the  trade 
is  controlled  by  a  Congested  Board,  and  the  coast  is 
divided  up  into  centres,  of  which  Dublin,  Cork,  Sligo, 
and  Galway  are  the  chief. 

Every  imaginable  form  of  craft  may  be  seen  in  these 
waters,  cutters  and  luggers  being  the  most  popular ;  and 
the  crews  include  negroes,  Welshmen,  Englishmen,  Manx- 
men, and  an  occasional  woman.  The  typical  Hibernian 
fisherman  is  not  the  same  being  on  land  as  he  is  at  sea. 
Once  persuade  him  to  buckle  to  his  work,  once  let  him 
get  on  board  his  smack,  and  his  seamanship  and  his  energy 
would  be  a  valuable  object-lesson  to  some  of  the  East 
Coast  men.  He  is  not  infrequently  a  bold  romancer — 
I  have  seldom  met  an  Irish  fisherman  who  had  not,  at 
some  period  of  his  existence,  caught  a  conger  that  had  at 
least  ten  other  eels  in  its  stomach,  graduated  and  arranged 
like  the  wooden  puzzle  eggs  that  the  London  hawkers 
sell,  one  inside  the  other;  and  he  will  sometimes  do 
what  the  East  Coast  and  Cornish  fishers  strongly  set  their 
faces  against,  take  beer  or  whisky  on  board ;  but,  these 
N  193 


SOME   REMARKS   ON 

peculiarities  apart,  he  is  a  splendid  fellow  at  sea,  whose 
unfailing  courage  and  brilliant  flashes  of  inspiration  will 
help  him  to  steer  round  rocks  and  currents  like  the  best 
pilot  that  ever  sailed  out  of  harbour. 

To  see  him  at  his  best  you  want  to  watch  him  trawling 
or  line-fishing  under  an  English  or  Scotch  skipper  whose 
rule  is  "no  beer  on  board,"  Plaice,  mullet,  hake,  sole, 
turbot,  these  are  what  he  is  trawling  for  and,  with  a 
good  wind,  what  he  will  catch !  If  he  is  line-fishing  he 
wants  ling  and  halibut  and  cod.  Often  one  gear  takes 
fish  that  is  expected  in  the  other ;  turbot  and  brill  will 
sometimes  swarm  on  the  lines ;  or  a  couple  of  huge 
congers  will  wriggle  about  in  the  trawl.  The  lines  are 
probably  hand-lines ;  for  not  many  Irish  families  would 
give  up  a  whole  day  or  more  to  the  baiting  of  a  creel- 
full  of  hooks. 

I  have  never  met  the  man  who  could  truthfully  say 
that  he  liked  conger-fishing ;  if  a  conger  should  come  up 
in  the  trawl,  nobody  cares  much  how  soon  it  worms  its 
way  through  a  port-hole  and  out  into  the  sea  again.  One 
would  almost  as  soon  have  a  boa-constrictor  for  a  fellow- 
passenger;  many  a  fisherman  can  show  horrible  scars 
caused  by  the  bite  of  one  of  these  gentry.  Fancy  having 
a  thing  that  weighs  nearly  a  hundredweight,  is  thicker 
than  a  man's  arm,  and  more  than  eight  feet  long,  going 
about  on  deck  seeking  whom  he  may  devour !  They  are 
as  savage  and  voracious  as  sharks,  and  do  undoubtedly 
devour  their  own  brethren,  though  not  in  the  orderly 
manner  quoted  above.  If  they  once  get  their  teeth  into 
anything,  even  decapitation  will  not  loose  them,  and  the 

194 


THE   IRISH   FISHERIES 

Irishman  was  no  fandi  Jictor  who  said  that  he  had  seen 
the  jaws  of  a  bodiless  head  prised  open  with  a  chisel  and 
pincers  before  the  arm  which  they  had  bitten  could  be  set 
free. 

The  South  Ireland  conger-fishing  is  done  by  hand-lines, 
with  a  pilchard  or  a  small  herring  as  bait.  The  fish  are 
caught  at  night,  generally  from  luggers  or  rowing-boats, 
and  a  knife  is  driven  through  their  heads  before  they  can 
get  into  mischief. 

The  west  and  south  coasts  are  only  good  in  certain 
places  for  trawling ;  here  and  there  a  beautiful  sand-bed 
will  offer  itself,  where  the  trawl-heads  can  glide  along  as  if 
they  were  going  over  a  ballroom  floor.  Then  up  come 
the  mullet  and  turbot  and  plaice  as  fast  as  you  like,  and 
our  Irishman  rubs  his  hands  as  he  reflects  that  at  least  a 
fortnight's  immunity  from  work  will  accrue  from  to-day^s 
catch.  Sometimes  a  small  mountain  of  plaice  only  is  shot 
out  of  the  trawl ;  good,  honest  seven-pounders — a  reason- 
able weight  for  such  fish,  though  they  sometimes  reach 
fifteen  pounds. 

The  reason  why  plaice  appear  more  often  in  the  trawl 
than  the  majority  of  other  fish,  is  because  they  are  such 
poor  swimmers ;  they  have  no  swimming-bladders,  and 
consequently  keep  pretty  much  along  the  bottom,  where 
they  find  their  food — molluscs  chiefly,  and  baby  skate — 
and  so  are  swept  in  by  the  foot-rope  of  the  trawl  where 
swifter  fish  would  escape. 

Another  fish  frequently  taken  in  Irish  waters  is  the 
"  mackerel-guide,"  more  properly  known  as  the  gar-fish. 
This  is  really  a  kind  of  salt-water  pike,  but  it  tastes 

195 


SOME  REMARKS   ON 

wonderfully  like  mackerel;  it  has  gained  its  nickname 
on  account  of  its  being  so  frequently  found  at  the  head 
of  a  shoal  of  mackerel  that  are  coming  into  the  shallows 
to  spawn. 

Sometimes,  among  the  heaving  mass  that  is  being 
turned  over  and  sorted,  a  broad  sheet  of  light  grey  shows 
itself,  and  a  big  tail  pokes  its  way  through  a  crowd  of 
smaller  fry  and  lashes  itself  irritably  up  and  down,  thus 
displaying  dark  stripes  along  the  lower  part  of  the  body 
to  which  it  belongs.  Every  man  instinctively  snatches  up 
his  knife  or  a  bit  of  wood  and  prepares  to  defend  himself. 

"  Tis  a  sea-cat ;  look  out ! "  shouts  everybody  in  one 
breath ;  and,  as  the  spiteful  monster  raises  its  ugly  head 
and  opens  its  mouth,  a  prudent  fisherman  salutes  it  with 
a  cut  across  the  nose,  or  pins  it  down  to  the  deck  with  a 
knife -blade.  This  unlovely  creature — sea -cat,  cat-fish, 
or  wolf-fish — is  a  vicious  beast,  whose  bite  is  "  ten  degrees 
worse,*"  as  the  fishermen  say,  than  a  conger's ;  at  any  rate 
it  is  often  more  painful,  and  some  even  maintain  that  it 
is  poisonous.  The  fish  is  about  six  feet  long,  its  flesh  is 
much  prized  by  the  poorer  classes,  and  its  skin  is  so 
tough  and  durable  that  the  Scotch  and  Irish  fishers  make 
bags  of  it.  It  is  exceedingly  savage,  and  will  snap  at 
anyone  who  goes  near  it. 

The  stranger  on  board  an  Irish  smack  need  not  be 
astonished  or  alarmed  at  seeing  an  occasional  monster 
thirty  feet  long,  lying  on  the  water,  or  even  inquisitively 
shoving  his  muzzle  over  the  taffrail. 

"  An'  indeed  it's  no  shark  at  all ;  'tis  a  sun-fish,  SUIT," 
the  Irishman  will  tell  him ;  generally  adding  a  rider  to 

196 


THE   IRISH   FISHERIES 

the  effect  that  it  is  more  peaceable  than  any  kitten.  But 
it  is  a  shark  all  the  same,  let  Patrick  call  it  what  he 
likes ;  the  basker,  which,  in  warm  weather,  spends  most 
of  its  days  lying  almost  on  the  water-surface  as  though 
revelling  in  the  sun's  rays.  It  is  as  strong  as  a  whale, 
but  undoubtedly  quite  harmless,  and  no  fisherman  ever 
takes  any  notice  of  it. 

These  western  and  southern  beds  are  very  treacherous 
to  the  poor  trawlers,  and  a  skipper  who  does  not  know 
every  square  yard  of  the  bottom  had  better  keep  clear 
of  them.  Sometimes,  while  on  such  a  sand-bed  as  we 
have  just  been  peacefully  drifting  over,  there  will  be  a 
sudden,  violent  jerk  on  the  boat — the  higher  the  wind  the 
more  this  will  be  perceived.  Sometimes  she  will  lie  over 
for  a  moment  like  a  yacht  tacking;  the  skipper  springs 
across  to  the  helm  arid  puts  the  boat  about,  shouting 
directions  to  the  crew  and,  if  he  be  a  humorist,  which 
most  of  these  fellows  are,  observing  that  they  have 
"  netted  a  rock."  In  a  fairly  high  wind  the  towlines 
have  been  known  to  snap  when  this  has  taken  place; 
then,  of  course,  all  hope  of  saving  the  gear  is  at  an  end. 
As  it  is,  the  smack  must,  if  possible,  get  to  the  farther 
side  of  the  rock  and  tow  the  net  backwards  from  under 
it — an  impossible  feat  if  the  wind  chooses  to  be  contrary ; 
at  best  it  will  be  something  like  trying  to  turn  a  hay-cart 
in  a  narrow  lane. 

Then  the  trawl  is  winched  up,  and  the  extreme  light- 
ness of  it  tells  a  sorry  tale ;  the  net  is  certainly  empty 
or  nearly  so,  and,  as  the  beam  is  taken  on  board,  it  may 
be  seen  that  the  net  hangs  straight  and  flat  in  the  water 

197 


SOME   REMARKS   ON 

like  a  limp  rag.  Impatiently  the  men  snatch  at  it,  in 
a  hurry  to  know  the  worst.  Down  in  the  "  cod "  of  the 
trawl  are  a  few  plaice  and  brill,  but  above  it  is  a  rent 
four  feet  long,  which  has  doubtless  been  caused  by  some 
sharp  rock  when  the  foot-rope  was  jerked  free  from  the 
mass  under  which  it  had  slid.  Then  out  come  the  net- 
ting tools,  and  the  busy  crew  hastily,  yet  neatly,  repair 
the  damage,  thanking  the  saints,  meanwhile,  that  it  is 
no  worse  ;  and  once  more  the  tackle  is  thrown  over. 

But  all  this  turning  about  has  thrown  some  of  the  men 
off  their  guard,  and,  as  the  main-sail  flies  round,  one  of 
them  gets  the  boom  full  across  his  chest.  For  a  second 
his  head  is  muffled  in  the  swelling  sail,  and  then,  before 
anyone  knows  what  is  happening,  there  is  a  splash, 
followed  by  the  shout,  "  Old  Jack's  overboard ! " 

That  "  man-overboard "  cry  is  a  far  more  awful  sound 
than  italics  or  marks  of  exclamation  can  make  it  appear ; 
I  have  heard  it  once  and  am  not  anxious  to  hear  it  again. 
Sometimes  even  practised  sailors  seem  for  the  moment 
to  be  paralysed  by  it,  although  it  is  not  absolutely  an 
uncommon  occurrence  in  rough  weather,  or  when  another 
smack  comes  along  and  steals  the  wind  from  your  boat 
so  that  your  main-sail  recoils  suddenly. 

One  man  "unships"  his  sea-boots  and  sou'- wester, 
another  stands  by  with  a  boat-hook,  a  third  with  a  rope. 
It  is  on  these  occasions  that  you  realise  that,  however 
bitter  enemies  men  may  be  in  everyday  life,  one  is  ready 
enough  to  help  another  unhesitatingly  when  there  is  any 
fear  of  death.  But,  in  this  case,  there  is  no  call  for  senti- 
ment or  sacrifice ;  a  very  soused-looking  head  comes  above 

198 


THE   IRISH   FISHERIES 

water,  makes  some  unintelligible  remarks,  and  then  a 
young  fisherman  leans  over  the  bulwarks,  grabs  the 
drenched  man  by  the  neck  and  shouts  laughingly,  "Tve 
got  the  old  chap ! "  and  in  a  minute  he  is  hauled  on  deck. 
But  such  easy  escapes  are  not  necessarily  the  rule. 

If  the  torn  net  cannot  be  repaired,  or  if  the  ground  is 
too  hopelessly  rocky  to  risk  another  shot  with  the  trawl, 
the  men  will  sometimes  make  good  their  day's  work  by 
throwing  in  what  lines  they  have  on  board,  hastily  baited 
with  the  most  likely  fish  they  happen  to  have  caught. 

Line-fishing  here  is  fairly  lucrative,  for  it  can  be  done 
at  almost  any  time ;  and  in  Ireland,  as  in  other  Catholic 
countries,  the  demand  for  fish  is  very  great — greater  than 
the  trawlers  alone  could  supply,  even  if  they  went  off 
more  regularly ;  and  the  huge  halibut  and  ling  that  come 
up  on  the  hooks  are  easily  gutted  and  salted.  Ling  are 
not  quite  so  common  here  as  further  north  ;  the  Hebrides, 
and  perhaps  the  Orkneys,  are  the  best  grounds;  still,  a 
very  large  number  may  be  taken  by  the  Cork  and  Water- 
ford  men.  "  Ling  "  is  simply  another  form  of  the  Dutch 
or  Saxon  "  lang,"  and  the  name  was  applied  to  this  fish 
because  it  was  regarded  as  merely  a  long  hake;  the 
Germans  still  call  it  the  "  long  fish."  It  is  of  the  same 
family  as  the  cod,  and  is  from  three  to  four  feet  long ;  its 
markings  are  rather  pretty ;  the  belly  is  silvery,  and  the 
back  anything  from  grey  to  olive-green  ;  all  its  fins  are 
tipped  with  white,  and  the  tail  has  a  black  bar  across  it. 

Halibut  are  a  much  larger  fish,  and  weigh  anything  up 
to  three  and  even  five  hundred  pounds,  and  sometimes 
measure  six  feet  from  tip  to  tail.  They  are  flat,  ugly 

199 


SOME  REMARKS  ON 

creatures,  with  teeth  not  only  in  their  mouths  but  in 
their  throats,  and  having  both  their  eyes  on  one  side. 

The  Irish  fishermen  devote  much  of  their  line-fishing 
time  to  rays  and  eels ;  the  eels  they  sell,  and  the  rays 
either  form  their  own  food  or  are  used  by  them  as  bait 
for  crabs  and  lobsters.  Rays  are  better  known  to  the 
consumer  as  skate  and,  to  the  fishermen,  as  "  roker  " ;  they 
may  be  seen  on  the  fishmongers1  slabs  almost  any  time 
between  July  and  April.  It  is  said  that  there  are  no  less 
than  eleven  species  of  them  round  the  Irish  coast.  They 
are  cartilaginous,  like  the  shark  or  the  sturgeon,  and 
their  flesh  is  very  popular  among  the  poorer  classes ;  for 
some  reason  London  and  Dublin  seem  to  consume  as 
much  of  this  fish  as  all  the  fishing  towns  put  together. 

The  Irishmen  are  only  administering  poetic  justice 
when  they  catch  the  ray  as  crab  and  lobster  bait,  for  no 
fish  plays  more  havoc  among  the  Crustacea ;  it  will  crunch 
up  a  big  crab,  sometimes  shell  and  all,  with  no  trouble 
whatever,  and  will  lie  in  wait  near  the  rocks  on  the 
chance  of  a  meal  of  lobster  or  shrimps.  No  fish  requires 
more  careful  handling,  whether  it  comes  up  on  a  line  or 
in  a  trawl,  for  most  species  are  armed  along  the  back  with 
tough  spines,  and,  in  defending  itself,  the  ray  bends  its 
body  in  a  bow  and  lets  itself  spring  back  with  frightful 
force,  often  causing  very  serious  wounds  with  its  spikes ; 
"  thorn-back  "  is  another  name  under  which  it  is  known 
by  the  fishermen. 

Eel-catching  in  both  fresh  and  salt  water  is  a  popular 
occupation  among  these  fishermen ;  their  tackle  varies 
with  the  neighbourhood  and  time  of  year.  A  most 

200 


THE   IRISH   FISHERIES 

ghastly  method  is  by  means  of  "  needle-tackle."  One  or 
two  stout  needles  are  buried  in  the  body  of  a  worm  and 
the  line  is  tied  round  the  whole ;  this  is  sunk  with  a  stone 
or  plummet  and  is  extraordinarily  successful  in  working, 
for  eels  are  no  less  greedy  than  other  fish,  and,  once  the 
bait  is  snapped  up,  the  points  are  safe  to  lodge  some- 
where, so  that  the  needles  act  as  a  fixed  cross-bar,  to 
which  the  line  is  immovably  fastened.  This  is  for 
summer  fishing.  In  the  rivers  and  lakes,  night-lines  are 
also  let  down,  but  this  is  not  regarded  as  a  legitimate 
form  of  fishing — at  any  rate  by  the  gamekeepers. 

At  the  approach  of  winter  the  eels  either  bury  them- 
selves in  the  mud  or  migrate  to  the  estuaries  like  that  of 
the  Shannon,  or  sometimes  into  the  open  sea.  If  they 
stay  in  the  mud  they  are  soon  "  forked  out "  with  an  eel- 
spear — an  instrument  with  several  prongs,  which  is  fitted 
to  a  long,  slender  handle ;  but  if  they  reach  the  estuaries, 
the  taking  of  them  ceases  to  be  a  sport  and  becomes  an 
industry.  Eel-pots  are  laid  down  in  series  after  the 
fashion  of  the  crab-pots,  across  the  current,  and  are 
cleared  and  rebaited  every  morning.  The  traps  are  very 
ingeniously  constructed ;  they  are  of  wicker  and  shaped 
like  a  narrow-mouthed  gallipot ;  the  funnel-like  entrance 
is  made  of  springy,  flexible  sticks  which  radiate  towards  a 
common  centre — a  hole  as  big  round  as  a  shilling.  The 
eel  has  no  difficulty  in  forcing  its  way  through  this  open- 
ing, for  the  springs  bend  back  most  obligingly ;  but  they 
shut  to  again  after  the  fish  has  passed  through,  and  he 
has  no  sort  of  chance  of  ever  getting  out  any  more. 

The  Ulster  fishermen  are  naturally  very  different  from 

201 


REMARKS   ON   IRISH   FISHERIES 

the  genuine  Irishmen,  most  of  them  being  of  English 
or  Scotch  descent ;  and  they  are  far  more  thrifty  and 
business-like  than  the  men  whose  country  has  adopted 
them. 

On  Tory  Island — an  islet  three  miles  long  and  less 
than  a  mile  broad,  which  lies  about  ten  miles  north-east 
of  the  Bloody  Foreland,  there  is  a  tiny  colony  of  real 
Irish  fishers ;  these  are  they  who,  it  is  reported,  feed  their 
cattle  on  fish.  They  and  the  Donegal  men  who  fish 
between  Lough  Swilly  and  the  Foreland,  have  an  excep- 
tionally dangerous  ground  upon  which  to  work,  for  there, 
apart  from  the  awful,  rocky  reef  that  runs  out  from  Tory, 
the  Atlantic  can  be  its  roughest,  so  much  so  that  often 
no  boat  can  pass  from  the  island  to  the  mainland  for  five 
or  six  weeks  at  a  time.  The  islanders  are  therefore 
obliged  to  store  their  fish  alive  in  salt-water  reservoirs, 
and  perhaps  it  is  from  this  fact  that  Irish  fishermen  have 
been  accused  of  tethering  valuable  fish  like  soles  and 
turbots  by  the  tail,  and  letting  them  swim  about  till  the 
steam-carrier  comes  to  fetch  them. 


202 


CHAPTER   XVII 

SOME  STRANGE  FISH  AND  STRANGE 
FISHERMEN 

Decay  of  primitive  methods— South  American  fisheries — The  ara- 
paima — Harpoons  and  tethered  arrows — The  armado — Catching 
fish  on  land— The  dlodon— Fishing  in  Tierra  del  Fuego — African 
river-fishing — The  Indian  mango-fish — The  modern  Galilean  fisher- 
man—South Sea  Island  fish— Proas  and  Hawaiian  "outriggers" 
— Australian  and  Arctic  fishing. 

BEFORE  quitting  the  subject  of  fish  proper,  we 
ought  to  take  a  glance  at  a  few  of  those  distant 
fisheries  that  cannot  well  be  classed  under  any  of 
the  foregoing  heads.  Colonisation  by  Europeans  has 
necessarily  swept  away  many  of  the  primitive  methods 
and  appliances  with  which  the  native  fishermen  of  Poly- 
nesia, the  East  Indies,  Africa,  and  America  were  wont  to 
astonish  the  travellers  of  a  bygone  age ;  but  the  fish  are 
still  there — many  of  them  very  curious  and  interesting — 
and  some  of  the  old  ways  of  catching  them  still  prevail. 
It  is  only  among  civilised  or  quasi-civilised  nations  that 
much  deep-sea  fishing  is  to  be  found.  Work  of  that  sort 
implies  the  use  of  strongly  built  vessels  such  as  few  savage 
races  would  have  the  means  of  constructing,  as  well  as  a 
far  more  profound  knowledge  of  seamanship  than  could  be 
expected  among  a  barbarian  people.  Enlightened  as  the 

203 


SOME   STRANGE   FISH 

ancient  Egyptians  were,  even  they  had  a  horror  of  the 
sea,  and  usually  confined  their  skill  and  energy  in  boat- 
building to  making  only  such  craft  as  would  be  used  on 
the  Nile.  The  American  Indian  who  glides  along  the  river, 
or  fishes  at  his  ease,  in  his  frail  birch  canoe,  regardless  of 
deep  water  and  alligators,  is  terrified  at  the  sight  of  a 
heavy  sea,  and  in  many  cases  would  not  let  himself  be 
persuaded  that  fish  can  live  amid  such  tempestuous  sur- 
roundings. 

Still,  there  are  exceptions.  Up  till  quite  a  few  years 
ago  the  coast  Indians  of  Peru  would  accomplish  long  and 
dangerous  sea  voyages  in  their  balzas^  which  were  little 
better  than  pointed  rafts  with  a  lug-sail,  bringing  back  a 
cargo  of  fish  which  they  had  caught  with  hook  and  line 
and  dried  in  the  sun.  Many  of  the  Polynesians  have  also 
proved  themselves  successful  deep-sea  fishers,  while  the 
natives  of  Madagascar  and  Malay,  if  they  did  not  trouble 
about  fishing  themselves,  had  no  objection  to  pursuing 
into  deep  water,  and  molesting,  anyone  else  who  did. 
Another  exception  must  of  course  be  made  where  the 
pearl-fishers  of  the  East  and  West  Indies  are  concerned. 

But  those  who  neglect  the  greater  depths  have  gener- 
ally very  remunerative  coast  fisheries,  and,  not  infre- 
quently, large  rivers  and  lakes  on  which  to  expend  their 
energies.  In  China,  for  instance,  there  are  more  river 
fishers  than  all  the  sea  fishers  in  Europe  and  America 
together;  while  the  great  rivers  of  South  America  and 
Africa  make  a  fishing  people  of  races  that  have  never 
been  within  hundreds  of  miles  of  the  sea. 

In  some  of  the  South  American  rivers  there  is  a  fish — 

204 


AND   STRANGE   FISHERMEN 

the  arapaima,  a  gigantic  fresh-water  herring — the  hunting 
of  which  has  been  both  a  sport  and  an  industry  among 
the  inhabitants  of  Brazil  and  Guiana  for  centuries.  As 
the  average  weight  of  these  monsters  is  about  three 
hundredweight — some  have  been  taken  weighing  four 
hundred  pounds  and  measuring  fifteen  feet  in  length — it 
will  be  seen  that  arapaima  hunting  is  not  child's  play. 
The  catching  is  done  by  hook  and  line,  by  tethered  arrows 
and  by  harpoons,  angling  being  only  employed  for  night 
work.  The  line,  a  sort  of  slender  lasso,  carries  a  heavily 
weighted  hook  baited  with  some  small  fish,  and  is  lowered 
from  a  canoe  which  it  is  almost  useless  to  moor,  on  account 
of  the  immense  towing  powers  of  the  fish.  If  the  angler 
is  wise,  as  soon  as  the  creature  is  pulled  near  enough,  he 
puts  an  end  to  its  struggles  with  a  spear. 

Sundown  or  sunrise  is  the  time  for  spearing.  A  boat 
pulled  by  half  a  dozen  Indians  or  Zambos  paddles  gently 
up  stream,  everyone  observing  perfect  silence,  two  or 
three  fishermen  crouching  in  the  bow  and  watching  keenly 
for  a  first  sight  of  the  largest  fresh-water  fish  in  the 
world.  Suddenly  a  head  splashes  half  above  water  and 
goes  down  again.  Instantly  one  of  the  watchers  snaps 
his  fingers,  at  which  the  rowers  rest  on  their  paddles  and 
every  one  waits  breathlessly.  The  same  thing  happens 
again,  the  head,  or  perhaps  just  the  nose  of  the  fish 
appearing  above  the  surface  and  vanishing  again  before 
aim  can  be  taken. 

Presently  a  loud  splash  is  heard  some  distance  astern  of 
the  boat,  as,  with  a  clumsy  imitation  of  its  sea  relative, 
the  tarpon,  the  giant  essays  a  half-spring  out  of  the  water. 

205 


SOME  STRANGE   FISH 

But  the  men  take  no  further  notice  of  him  now  ;  they 
know  that  they  have  lost  him  in  any  case,  for  the  fish  are 
all  travelling  down  stream.  Judging,  however,  from  the 
number  of  ripples  ahead,  he  is  no  great  loss,  for  there  are 
plenty  more  like  him  to  come.  At  last  a  broad  silver 
belly  rises  a  good  five  feet.  Evidently  this  is  a  monster, 
for,  some  distance  beyond,  the  water  is  being  threshed  into 
a  tiny  whirlpool  by  his  great  forked  tail.  Before  the 
arapaima  can  sink  again,  a  harpoon  whirls  through  the  air 
trailing  behind  it  a  long  leathern  cord,  the  other  end  of 
which  is  made  fast  to  the  boat.  For  an  instant  it  seems 
as  though  boat  and  crew  would  be  dragged  under,  as  the 
fish  gives  one  convulsive  plunge ;  but  the  spear  was  too 
well  or  too  luckily  aimed ;  it  has  bedded  itself  in  the 
upper  part  of  the  chest,  and  that  sudden,  jerking  plunge 
was  the  arapaima's  last  movement ;  all  that  remains  to  be 
done  is  to  drag  the  dead  body  aboard. 

But  there  are  times  when  the  shot  is  not  so  opportune  ; 
often  the  fish  with  three  and  even  four  harpoons  bristling  in 
its  back  or  sides,  will  plunge,  kick,  and  dodge,  till  there 
is  every  likelihood  of  the  little  vessel's  capsizing,  and 
leaving  her  crew  at  the  mercy  of  the  sleepy-looking 
alligators,  that  are  innocently  watching  the  sport  from 
the  muddy  bank. 

The  tethered  arrow,  formerly  more  commonly  used  than 
the  harpoon  in  arapaima  fishing,  is  almost  identical  with 
the  Indian  turtle-spear.  The  head  is  movable,  being 
lightly  fixed  in  a  socket  at  the  end  of  the  shaft ;  when 
the  point  strikes  an  object,  the  shaft  is  shaken  free, 
though  still  in  connection  with  the  point  by  means  of  a 

206 


AND   STRANGE   FISHERMEN 

long  coil  of  stout  cord  or  thong  which  has  been  neatly 
wound  round  the  arrow.  The  coil  rapidly  unrolls  itself, 
leaving  the  shaft  on  the  surface  as  a  sort  of  float,  and  all 
the  fishermen  have  to  do  is  to  paddle  up  and  seize  this ; 
then  to  draw  the  refractory  giant  to  the  top,  as  a  further 
mark  for  their  bows  and  arrows. 

When  caught,  the  fish  is  either  cut  up  into  steaks  and 
sold  slightly  salted,  or  is  dried  and  packed  for  transport  to 
the  large  towns,  or  for  export.  The  flesh  is  said  to  be 
excellent. 

The  South  American  rivers  and  pools  have  almost 
a  monopoly  of  the  curiosities  among  fresh-water  fishes. 
In  the  Parana  is  another  giant,  called  by  the  Gauchos  the 
armado ;  shorter  though  thicker  than  the  arapaima,  and 
much  prized  for  its  delicate  flavour.  The  Gauchos  angle 
for  it  with  hand-lines,  and  hooks  baited  with  cray-fish  or 
meat.  Two  men  in  a  canoe  can  work  four  lines — they 
could  work  forty  if  the  craft  were  large  enough  to  stand 
the  strain ;  the  upper  end  of  the  line  is  tied  to  the  boat, 
and  the  men  stand  straddle-legged  to  guard  against 
sudden  lunges.  These  do  not  always  come  ;  often  the  fish 
swallows  the  hook,  and  lies  on  the  bottom,  scarcely  moving, 
and  only  kicking  when  hauling-in  time  comes. 

Then  how  does  the  fisherman  know  when  he  has  got  a 
bite  ?  The  armado  sees  to  all  that ;  for,  the  moment  he 
is  hooked,  he  sets  up  a  rattling,  grating  noise  that  can  be 
clearly  heard  even  when  he  is  at  the  bottom,  and,  if  near 
the  surface,  is  audible  from  several  yards  away.  And, 
moreover,  he  is  not  always  content  to  lie  in  the  mud  and 
groan.  He  has  a  trick  sometimes  of  seizing  the  line  with 

207 


SOME   STRANGE   FISH 

the  spine  of  his  back  or  breast-fin,  and  either  snapping  it 
or  doing  his  best  to  capsize  the  boat.  So  powerful  are  the 
fins,  in  fact,  that  he  will  seize  the  blade  of  a  paddle  with 
one  of  them  and  jerk  it  out  of  an  unwary  hand  in  an  instant. 

Another  member  of  his  tribe  (siluridae),  the  largest 
fresh-water  fish  in  Europe,  is  found  in  the  Elbe  and 
Danube,  under  various  local  names,  measuring  eight  feet 
long  and  weighing  about  three  hundredweight. 

Further  varieties  of  the  same  family  are  also  found 
in  other  South  American  rivers,  the  best  known  of  which 
is  called  by  zoologists  the  callichihys ,•  it  is  covered  from 
end  to  end  with  rows  of  small  scaly  plates,  and  on  the 
head  is  a  kind  of  bony  helmet.  Not  only  does  it  make  a 
regular  nest  in  the  mud,  wherein  it  deposits  its  eggs,  but, 
if  the  stream  or  pool  in  which  it  lives  dries  up  in  the  hot 
weather,  it  will  make  a  considerable  land  journey  to  some 
other  piece  of  water  ;  and  it  is  on  these  journeys  that  it  is 
generally  lain  in  wait  for  and  speared  by  the  Indians. 
One  more  member  of  this  genus,  common  in  the  Essequibo, 
the  most  highly  prized  of  all  as  a  table  delicacy,  is  the 
"  broad-mouth  "  (platystoma\  the  most  beautifully  marked 
of  any ;  the  skin  is  a  pale  blue,  and  across  the  back  are 
alternate  stripes  of  black  and  white ;  from  their  flat 
snouts  and  wide  jaws,  which  they  are  in  the  habit  of 
poking  above  the  surface,  they  may  easily  be  mistaken  at 
first  sight  for  alligators. 

Alligators,  by  the  way,  are  not  the  only  foes  to  river 
fishers  here.  In  the  streams  of  Paraguay  are  enormous 
water-serpents  which  have  been  known  to  upset  a  light 
canoe  and  drag  one  of  the  occupants  under  water. 

208 


AND   STRANGE   FISHERMEN 

British  and  Dutch  residents  in  Guiana  had  at  one  time 
ample  sport  in  fishing  the  Essequibo  for  the  dawalla^  a 
scaleless  fish,  brilliantly  marked  with  green,  brown,  and 
crimson,  two  and  a  half  feet  long,  with  a  head  like  our 
jack  ;  but,  as  it  has  been  hooked  without  mercy  for  the 
sake  of  its  delicate  flavour,  to  catch  one  nowadays  is 
something  for  the  sportsman  to  boast  about. 

The  coast  fisheries  of  South  America  have,  except  in 
the  far  south,  ceased  to  offer  anything  particularly  strik- 
ing or  unusual ;  the  seine,  worked  from  the  shore  or  from 
small  boats,  is  the  most  commonly  used  net.  In  it  are 
taken  eels  of  various  sorts,  mackerel,  a  species  of  herring, 
and  an  occasional  sun-fish,  globe-fish,  sea-porcupine,  or 
diodon,  as  it  is  variously  termed — the  most  innocent  of 
creatures  if  left  alone,  and  one  of  the  most  formidable  to 
interfere  with,  for  it  will  bite  like  any  wolf,  and  the 
fishermen,  though  they  are  anxious  enough  to  secure  it, 
for  it  commands  a  good  price  as  a  curiosity,  allow  it  to 
die  in  peace  before  attempting  to  carry  it  away.  It  is 
about  two  feet  long,  very  bulky  and  flabby,  and  has  the 
power  of  inflating  itself  till  it  is  almost  globular,  when  its 
whole  surface  is  seen  to  be  covered  with  short  spines.  In 
this  blown-out  condition  it  is  incapable  of  swimming,  but 
comes  to  the  surface  lying  on  its  back,  and  allows  itself 
to  be  carried  along  by  the  tide.  Sometimes  while  in  this 
position  it  will  shoot  a  jet  of  water  some  considerable 
distance,  at  the  same  time  making  a  curious  grating 
noise  with  its  mouth.  Sometimes  a  misguided  shark  will 
elect  to  swallow  a  diodon,  and  in  doing  so  inadvertently 
commits  suicide ;  for  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  the  smaller 
o  209 


SOME   STRANGE   FISH 

fish  "  goes  down "  whole  and  living,  and  at  once  proceeds 
to  bite  a  way  out  for  itself  through  the  stomach,  ribs,  and 
skin  of  the  shark. 

Its  under-skin  secretes  a  beautiful  red  dye,  which  was 
once  much  prized  by  the  Indians  of  Brazil.  The  fish  is 
also  found  in  the  Indian  and  Pacific  oceans. 

South  American  fishermen  keep  careful  watch  in  the 
pools  at  low  tide  for  the  hideous  octopus  or  cuttle-fish, 
which  scarcely  calls  for  a  description,  as  everyone  has 
seen  it  in  pictures  or  aquaria.  Sailors  and  novelists  tell 
us  horrible  things  about  the  misdeeds  of  the  creature, 
though  many  naturalists  regard  it  as  more  or  less  harm- 
less. To  the  fisherman  it  is  rather  a  "  find,"  both  for  the 
sake  of  the  valuable  black  pigment  which  it  secretes  and 
also  for  its  calcareous  "shield,"  commonly  known  as  the 
cuttle-fish  bone,  which  is  reduced  to  powder  and  used  as  a 
metal-burnisher.  The  small  northern  variety,  called  the 
flying-squid,  which  the  cod-fishers  use  as  bait,  has  the 
power  of  leaping  to  a  height  of  fifteen  or  twenty  feet 
above  the  water. 

The  savages  of  Tierra  del  Fuego  subsist  almost  entirely 
on  fish,  blubber,  and  seaweed.  Here  we  must  talk  about 
fish-wives,  for  it  is  the  women  who  do  almost  all  the  fish- 
ing, though  the  men  sometimes  paddle  the  canoes  from 
which  much  of  the  work  is  done.  Generally  speaking, 
the  women  catch  fish  while  the  men  gather  molluscs  from 
the  rocks,  or  drift  about  in  their  canoes  on  the  chance  of 
finding  a  dead  whale  or  seal.  The  women's  lines  consist, 
as  often  as  not,  of  lengths  of  their  own  hair  braided  and 
joined ;  some  few  use  a  fish-bone  hook,  but  most  of  them 

210 


AND   STRANGE  FISHERMEN 

none  at  all :  the  body  of  a  good-sized  shell-fish  is  tied  to 
the  end  of  the  line,  and  the  woman,  sitting  in  her  canoe, 
waits  till  some  fish  is  choked  by  the  bulky  bait,  and  then 
draws  up.  When  not  engaged  thus,  these  primitive  fish- 
wives are  occupied  in  diving  for  shell-fish  and  sea-eggs  ; 
this  they  do  without  any  such  mechanical  appliances  as 
ropes  or  weights,  springing  into  one  or  two-fathom  water 
from  the  rocks  just  as  we  might  dive  from  a  boat  or 
spring-board.  Some  of  the  more  energetic  of  the  men 
practise  fish-spearing,  pulling  out  to  a  depth  of  a  few 
fathoms,  and  "jabbing"  at  the  fish  as  they  appear,  with  a 
one-barbed  spear ;  but  this  is  an  operation  which  requires 
more  judgment  than  the  poor  Fuegians  possess,  as  any- 
one is  aware  who  has  ever  aimed  at  even  a  stationary 
object  that  is  under  water. 

Passing  on  to  the  African  continent,  we  see  very  much 
the  same  state  of  things  as  in  America — sea-fisheries 
mainly  under  direct  or  indirect  European  influence,  the 
natives  attaching  more  importance  to  the  rivers  and 
lakes.  In  the  Nile,  fishing  is  carried  on  almost  as  it  was 
in  the  days  of  the  Pharaohs,  by  lines  and  dip-nets,  the 
latter  worked  from  the  bank,  and  shaped  something  like  a 
very  long-handled  shrimp  push-net,  or  by  groping  in  the 
mud  as  the  waters  recede  after  the  floods.  A  very  popu- 
lar fish  that  is  taken  in  the  latter  way  is  the  bichir,  which 
is  about  eighteen  inches  long,  and  is  covered  with  hard, 
bony  scales.  In  the  same  manner  the  Arabs  of  the  Upper 
Nile  catch  what  they  call  the  "  thunder-fish,""  which  aver- 
ages a  foot  in  length  and,  like  that  of  the  Calabar  River 
in  the  west,  is  endowed  with  considerable  power  of 

211 


SOME   STRANGE   FISH 

developing  electricity.  A  large  kind  of  barbel  named  the 
binny,  also  found  in  the  mud,  is  greatly  prized  by  the 
Nile  dwellers,  though  to  English  palates  it  would  be 
tasteless. 

In  less  civilised  parts  of  the  continent — on  the  Gambia 
River,  for  example — we  find  fish-spearing  as  mentioned 
above,  as  well  as  mud-searching.  The  West  African 
Negroes  are  very  fond  of  the  "  mud-eel,'1  which,  according 
to  some  naturalists,  ought  to  be  classed  as  a  reptile  on 
account  of  its  foot-like  fins.  When  the  floods  subside, 
thousands  of  these  are  left  high  and  dry,  and  promptly 
bury  themselves  in  the  mud,  which  soon  becomes  hard 
and  earthy,  and  here  they  would  remain  till  the  next 
inundation  if  the  Negroes  did  not  come  along  with  wooden 
forks  and  dig  them  out. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  Congo  Free  State  use  fish-spears, 
as  well  as  long  metal  hooks,  which  they  hold  in  their 
hands.  The  people  of  Madagascar  are  more  advanced, 
and  have  for  centuries  known  the  art  of  making  hempen 
nets  and  barbed  hooks. 

In  the  Indian  Ocean  is  another  curiosity  called  the 
"  drum-fish,"  which  the  island  fishermen  of  the  Seychelles, 
Amirantes,  etc.  often  take  with  hand-lines,  and  which  is 
highly  esteemed  as  an  article  of  food ;  it  has  earned  its 
name  from  its  habit  of  making  a  booming  noise  when 
pursuing  or  pursued ;  in  size  and  taste  it  is  not  unlike  cod. 

The  fisheries  of  India  scarcely  differ  from  those  of 
China,  the  only  deep-sea  work  done  by  the  natives  being 
practically  confined  to  the  pearl-oyster.  But  a  river  fish 
greatly  sought  after  by  native  anglers  is  the  tupsee  or 

212 


AND   STRANGE  FISHERMEN 

bartah,  known  by  Europeans  as  the  mango-fish,  from  its 
yellowish  colour.  It  is  not  unlike  our  perch,  and  always 
commands  a  high  price,  partly  on  account  of  its  tooth- 
someness,  but  especially  because  its  air-bladder  yields 
isinglass.  Several  allied  fish  are  found  in  the  hotter  parts 
of  America  and  Africa. 

In  the  Ceylon  rivers,  too,  we  find  the  peasantry  still 
clinging  to  the  wading  method,  almost  identical  with  that 
practised  by  the  Chinese ;  the  fisherman  finding  his  catch 
with  his  bare  feet. 

The  use  of  weirs  or  garths  has  been  introduced  into  the 
Andaman  Islands ;  at  Port  Blair,  the  great  convict 
settlement,  the  prisoners  erect  across  the  mouths  of  the 
creeks  similar  wooden  traps  to  those  mentioned  in 
Chapter  X ;  they  are  not  a  fixture,  but  are  periodically 
moved  from  creek  to  creek,  because  after  a  time  the  fish 
grow  wary  and  avoid  the  spot  where  they  have  seen  their 
friends  disappear.  The  seir-fish,  a  kind  of  salmon,  is 
caught  in  this  way.  Here  deep-sea  fishing  is  almost  out 
of  the  question  by  reason  of  the  strong  current  and  heavy 
seas. 

We  cannot  leave  the  subject  of  Asiatic  fisheries  without 
a  word  or  two  about  that  carried  on  in  the  Holy  Land. 
The  modern  Palestine  traveller  tells  us  that  we  should 
now  look  in  vain  for  boats  "launching  out  into  the 
deep,"  and  working  nets  all  night  in  the  Sea  of  Galilee. 
Not  that  the  fish  have  disappeared ;  they  are  to  be  caught 
there  in  millions,  as  also  in  the  Jordan  and  the  Jabbock ; 
but  the  Arabs,  less  accustomed  to  systematic  work  than 
the  Jews  of  old,  follow  easier  plans — the  simplest  and 

213 


SOME   STRANGE   FISH 

most  disgusting  of  which  is  throwing  poisoned  bits  of 
meal-cake  into  the  water,  and  then  wading  in  to  make  a 
collection ;  "  a  custom  which  sure  no  other  nation  is  like 
to  rob  them  of ! " 

Another  way  of  going  to  work  is  by  pelting  the  fish 
with  stones,  which  can  be  done  very  profitably  where  the 
shoals  of  yellow  musht  congregate.  Some  of  the  Bedawin, 
probably  taking  example  by  travellers,  fire  charges  of 
small  shot  among  them,  and  so  get  a  bag ;  so  thick  are 
these  shoals  that  it  is  even  said  that  a  revolver  bullet  has 
been  known  to  kill  three  fish.  Hook  and  line  may  be 
found  very  occasionally,  but,  as  a  rule,  where  the  practices 
mentioned  above  are  not  resorted  to,  the  fishing  is  done 
by  small  dip-nets  or  large  hand-nets  ;  in  the  former  case, 
the  fishers,  standing  on  the  rocks,  lower  a  kind  of  bird-net 
which  can  be  closed  by  the  pulling  of  a  rope,  from  rocks 
or  wooden  platforms,  and  haul  up  at  intervals  of  an  hour 
or  so.  Where  the  hand-net  is  in  use — it  is  a  kind  of 
cross  between  a  butterfly-  and  shrimp-net — the  fisherman 
wades  in  up  to  his  waist  with  a  bag  on  his  shoulder,  and 
is  content  to  catch  the  fish  one  or  two  at  a  time.  The 
fish  of  the  Syrian  waters  are  of  many  different  species,  but 
few  are  peculiar  to  the  country. 

Going  farther  afield  to  the  more  distant  islands — and 
probably  meeting  en  route  the  sea-serpent,  which  is  one  of 
the  ribbon-fish  tribe  frequenting  very  deep  water  and 
measuring  from  fifteen  feet — we  come  across  other  flying- 
fish  than  those  mentioned  in  an  earlier  chapter.  The 
flying  gurnard,  for  instance,  which,  in  addition  to  possess- 
ing the  power  to  take  long  leaps,  can  support  itself  in 

214 


A  SPIDER'S  WEB  AS  A  FISHING-NET:  A  STRANGE 
NEW  GUINEA  DEVICE 

A  very  huge  and  strong  spider's  web,  common  to  New 
Guinea,  is  used  by  the  natives  as  a  fishing-net.  They  set  up 
in  the  forest  a  bamboo,  bent  as  in  the  picture,  and  leave  it 
until  the  spiders  have  covered  it  with  a  web  in  the  manner 
shown. 


AND   STRANGE   FISHERMEN 

mid-air  for  a  minute  or  so  by  means  of  its  long  breast- 
fins.  This  the  inhabitants  of  the  South  Seas  shoot  with 
arrows  and  eat.  Another  delicacy  among  these  islanders 
is  the  palate^  a  slender  marine  animal  three  inches  long, 
whose  body  is  divided  into  joints,  each  of  which  is  supplied 
with  a  pair  of  gills ;  the  natives  gather  these  in  great 
numbers  from  the  coral  reefs,  and  bake  them  wrapped  in 
the  leaves  of  the  bread-fruit  tree. 

One  of  the  most  extraordinary  nets  to  be  found  in  the 
whole  world  is  that  used  on  the  New  Guinea  coast ;  a  net 
of  Nature's  own  providing.  A  local  spider  is  in  the  habit 
of  weaving  a  web  about  six  feet  in  diameter,  the  meshes 
of  which  are  so  tough  that  they  will  not  only  resist  con- 
siderable water-pressure,  but  will  easily  stand  the  weight 
of  a  one-pound  fish.  The  canny  natives  cut  long  bamboo 
poles,  bend  the  ends  into  a  loop,  and  leave  them  all  day  in 
the  forest  where  the  spiders  are  most  plentiful ;  when  they 
return  they  find  that  the  industrious  creature  has  con- 
verted each  bamboo  into  a  sort  of  gigantic  tennis-racquet 
or  lacrosse-bat,  and  with  this  the  fisherman  retires  to  the 
nearest  stream  or  back-water  and  whips  out  the  fish  singly 
as  they  rise. 

The  Sandwich  islanders  and  the  people  of  the  Ladrones 
are  exceptional  as  savage  fishermen,  having  no  fear  of 
fairly  deep  water.  The  latter  think  nothing  of  going 
fishing  in  thirteen  fathoms  in  canoes  which  British  fisher- 
men would  laugh  or  shudder  at ;  light-built  proas,  but 
rigged  with  one  sail,  in  the  construction  of  which  their 
ancestors  most  likely  copied  the  Malay  pirates.  The  boat 
which  the  .Hawaiians  use  for  fishing  and  porpoise-hunt- 

215 


SOME   STRANGE   FISH 

ing  is  very  long  and  very  narrow,  pointed,  and  curved 
upwards  at  either  end,  and  capable  of  holding  five  or 
six  men.  By  an  ingenious  system  of  "  outrigger "  the 
terrific  surf  is  rendered  almost  powerless  to  upset  this 
craft ;  for  standing  out  from  one  side  of  the  boat  are  two 
light  poles,  across  the  ends  of  which  is  lashed  a  beam 
similar  in  shape  and  length  to  the  boaVs  keel,  so  that  at  a 
distance,  you  might  think  you  saw  two  boats  fixed  parallel 
to  each  other.  The  outrigger  forms  a  stay  to  the  boat 
on  the  side  whereon  it  is  fixed,  and  the  other  side  is 
equally  supported  because  only  a  very  great  strain  could 
possibly  weigh  up  such  a  contrivance.  The  paddling  is  done 
from  the  stern,  and  fishing  begins  as  soon  as  the  little 
vessel  is  clear  of  the  reefs ;  and  in  a  very  few  hours  she  has 
as  many  fish  as  she  can  hold.  The  catch  is  taken  ashore 
alive  in  pots  and  skin  buckets,  and  disposed  of  at  the 
public  market,  many  of  the  islanders  consuming  it  not 
only  uncooked  but  still  living. 

The  Australian  fisheries  have  developed  remarkably 
during  the  last  half-century,  apart  even  from  the  whaling 
and  pearl-fishing,  huge  fleets  being  engaged  in  turtle-, 
dugong-  and  oyster-fishing ;  more  than  a  hundred  species 
of  edible  fish  are  trawled  for  off  the  coast  of  New  South 
Wales  alone.  The  few  remaining  coast  aborigines  live  on 
the  coarse-fleshed  sting-rays  which  are  thrown  up  living 
and  dead  by  the  tide ;  and  on  such  other  fish  as  they  can 
catch  on  the  barbed  bone  points  of  their  spears.  The 
Kanakas  of  the  Melanesian  Islands  are  skilful  in  the 
building  of  canoes,  but,  as  with  the  Fuegians,  the  women 
do  the  fishing,  while  the  men  eat  each  other. 

216 


ESKIMOS  SPEARING  FISH 

They  wait  patiently  at  a  hole  in  the  ice  until  a  fish  comes  near  the  surface, 
and  then  strike. 


AND   STRANGE   FISHERMEN 

It  is  necessary  to  add  a  few  lines  concerning  other 
Arctic  fisheries  than  those  which  we  shall  presently  touch 
upon.  There  is  not  much  to  be  said.  The  Eskimos  would 
be  willing  enough  to  catch  the  fish,  but  there  are  so  few 
to  be  caught;  the  coitus,  a  spiny-headed  creature  which 
British  fishermen  call  the  "  Father  Lasher,11  with  a  small 
kind  of  cod,  the  Arctic  shark,  the  salmon,  and  the  mysis 
or  opossum-shrimp,  are  almost  the  only  fish  that  will 
venture  so  far  north.  In  winter  time  the  Eskimo  makes 
a  hole  in  the  ice  when  possible  and,  with  his  bone-headed 
spear  or  barbed  fork,  patiently  sticks  such  fish  as  come 
near  the  surface  ;  in  summer  he  goes  in  his  canoe  or  kayak 
— which  he  has  cleverly  made  from  what  odd  bits  of  wood 
he  can  scrape  together,  and  covered  with  skin — and,  with 
a  line  made  of  sinew  and  a  fish-bone  hook,  angles  for 
whatever  he  may  be  lucky  enough  to  catch. 


217 


CHAPTER   XVIII 
PEARLS  AND   PEARL-DIVING 

How  pearls  grow— Loose  and  fixed  pearls— The  fish  that  contain 
them— The  Ceylon  Banks— Native  divers— The  pearl  fleet— Scene 
in  the  Gulf  of  Manaar— A  noisy  crew— The  "  shifts  "—Method  of 
lowering — Sharks— A  curious  superstition  —Landing  and  piling  the 
oysters— How  they  open — Varieties  of  pearls — Other  grounds — 
Dredging  for  pearl-shells— The  argentine. 

WHAT  is  pearl  ?    Put  briefly,  it  is  the  result  of 
layer  upon  layer  of  carbonate  of  lime  being 
wrapped  round  a  tiny  nucleus  that  lies  hidden 
within  some  shell-tearing  mollusc. 

Most  shell-fish  are  provided  with  a  secretion  wherewith 
to  line  their  homes,  making  the  otherwise  harsh  shell  a 
smooth  and  comfortable  refuge  for  the  tender  body  that 
lies  within  it ;  and  this  secretion,  which,  in  its  hardened 
form,  we  know  as  nacre  or  mother-of-pearl,  is  spread  by 
the  fish  in  very  thin  translucent  films,  the  outer  one  of 
which  consequently  acquires  an  opaline  or  iridescent  sur- 
face. When  the  shell  is  thus  lined,  its  tenant  has  still 
good  store  of  the  secretion  left,  and  this  it  devotes  to 
covering  any  small  particle  that  has  no  business  within 
the  valves ;  for  shell-fish,  though  their  nervous  system  be, 
in  most  respects,  very  elementary,  are  exceedingly  sen- 
sitive to  tickling  or  scratching. 

218 


PEARLS  AND  PEARL-DIVING 

A  grain  of  sand  will  sometimes  work  its  way  between 
the  body  and  one  of  the  valves,  thereby  causing  an 
irritation  which  the  mollusc  at  once  proceeds  to  check 
by  gradually  covering  the  intruder  with  carbonate  of 
lime  films,  one  upon  another  like  the  coats  of  an  onion, 
till  it  is  as  smooth  and  polished  as  the  inside  of  the  shell 
itself.  Again,  when  a  dog-whelk  or  other  boring  animal 
that  preys  on  oysters  has  succeeded  in  drilling  a  hole 
through  the  shell  from  the  outside,  the  little  creature 
within  will  sometimes  plug  up  the  aperture  with  its 
secretion  and  laboriously  spread  layers  over  the  nucleus 
thus  formed.  The  result  in  either  of  these  cases  is  that 
a  pearl  will  be  found  adhering  to  one  of  the  shells. 

The  more  valuable  pearls,  however,  are  found  loose 
inside  the  mantle  of  the  mollusc,  or  at  least  slightly 
connected  with  it ;  and  these  have  a  somewhat  different 
origin.  It  often  happens  that  one  of  the  ova  is  lifeless, 
and,  not  being  thrown  out  with  the  rest  at  spawning 
time,  gradually  increases  in  size,  because,  though  infertile, 
it  is  still  supplied  with  blood-vessels  from  the  parent 
body;  then  hardens  and  becomes  an  even  greater  source 
of  irritation  than  any  foreign  object  would  be — till  it  has 
been  "  insulated  "  with  nacre  and  made  a  pearl  of.  These 
will  be  the  globular  and  pear-shaped  pearls — pear-shaped, 
because  at  times  the  connecting  link  or  pedicle  between 
the  egg  and  the  body  is  also  covered  with  the  films.  One 
of  the  latter  sort  has  been  taken  weighing  3f  oz.  troy, 
2  in.  long  and  4  in  circumference.  I  believe  it  is  still  to 
be  seen  at  the  South  Kensington  Museum. 

Any  shell-bearing  mollusc  may  contain  pearls,  though 

219 


PEARLS  AND   PEARL-DIVING 

they  are  most  often  found  in  certain  species  of  oysters. 
Very  fine  ones  have  been  discovered  in  the  ordinary 
British  fresh-water  mussel,  notably  from  the  Welsh  and 
Scotch  rivers ;  the  best  known  of  these  being  one  that 
was  found  at  Conway  in  the  seventeenth  century  and 
presented  by  the  Lord  of  the  Manor  to  Catherine  of 
Braganza,  wife  of  Charles  II ;  it  is  still  preserved  among 
the  Crown  jewels.  The  sea  mussels  found  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Conway  are  still  crushed  for  the  sake  of  any  pearls 
they  may  contain. 

About  a  year  ago  a  large  spherical  pearl  was  taken 
from  a  Whitstable  oyster ;  and  pearl-bearers,  both  mussel 
and  oyster,  are  so  continually  found  off  the  coast  of 
Scotland  that  a  local  fishery  has  more  than  once  been 
seriously  mooted  even  in  our  own  time.  In  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries  such  an  industry  was 
carried  on  there,  over  a  hundred  thousand  pounds1  worth 
of  pearls  being  shipped  to  France  between  the  years 
1760  and  1800  alone.  The  Chinese  oyster,  too,  often 
contains  a  very  small  pearl. 

In  a  general  way,  however,  we  can  only  expect  to  find 
the  genuine  article  in  really  warm  seas  and  at  a  consider- 
able distance  from  the  shore,  as  in  the  case  of  Ceylon,  the 
East  and  West  Indies,  Central  America,  and  the  Persian 
Gulf.  The  pearl-oyster  proper  (Meleagrma  margaritlferus) 
has  a  shell  that  is  almost  semicircular  and  of  a  greenish 
colour  outside,  the  inside  being  lined  throughout  with  an 
unusually  thick  and  hard  nacreous  coat ;  the  two  valves 
are  joined  together  by  a  very  long  straight  hinge.  Such 
fish  are  found  either  singly  or  in  huge  clusters,  clinging 

220 


H 

is 

II 


o 


PEARLS  AND   PEARL-DIVING 

to  rocks  that  are  covered  with  seventy  feet  and  more  of 
water;  or  lying  huddled  together  on  "banks"  such  as 
the  celebrated  ones  in  the  Gulf  of  Manaar  on  the  west 
coast  of  Ceylon. 

It  is  often  asked  why  pearl-oysters  are  not  dredged  for, 
like  others.  In  Australia  and  elsewhere  the  fishermen 
have  tried  this  method,  and  there  is  no  special  reason  why 
it  might  not  become  universal,  beyond  the  fact  that  the 
depth  (nine  to  thirteen  fathoms)  is  somewhat  against  it. 
There  is  this  to  be  said,  also ;  three  divers  working  for 
ten  hours  can  bring  up  three  or  four  thousand  oysters 
between  them ;  while,  working  with  dredges,  by  the  time 
they  had  sorted  the  desirable  from  the  undesirable,  they 
would  not  have  caught  much  more  than  half  that  num- 
ber; further — the  fisherman,  whether  Asiatic  or  European, 
will  do  as  his  fathers  did. 

Pearl-divers — Hindoos,  Sinhalese,  Coolies,  Negroes,  and 
Arabs — have  been  trained  to  their  work  from  childhood  ; 
trained  to  hold  their  breath  under  water,  to  stand  the 
pressure  that  must  be  expected  in  such  a  depth,  and  to 
gather  a  bag-full  of  oysters  in  rather  less  than  a  minute. 
Partly  to  realise  what  that  pressure  means,  you  have  only 
to  lie  at  the  bottom  of  a  six-foot  swimming  bath  while 
you  count  sixty,  and  then  reflect  that  a  pearl-diver  stays 
the  same  length  of  time,  and  more,  under  twelve  or 
thirteen  times  that  depth,  busily  working  with  his  hands 
the  whole  while. 

Short  as  the  Ceylon  pearl  season  is — it  lasts  but  from 
the  middle  of  March  to  the  end  of  April — the  divers,  as 
they  are  now  paid,  can  earn  enough;;during  that  time,  if 

221 


PEARLS  AND  PEARL-DIVING 

they  are  lucky,  to  satisfy  their  humble  wants  for  the 
remainder  of  the  year.  Some  employers  have  a  fixed  rate 
of  payment;  others  go  on  the  profit-sharing  principle, 
each  boat  taking  a  fourth  of  the  proceeds  of  its  catch, 
and  the  divers  sharing  that  amount  equally. 

Long  before  daylight  the  boats,  hundreds  of  them,  put 
out,  each  of  them  rigged  with  a  gigantic  sort  of  lug-sail 
and  carrying  a  crew  of  from  five-and-twenty  to  sixty, 
including  ten  or  more  divers.  Navigation  in  these  waters 
is  a  tolerably  simple  matter.  There  are  no  tides  to  speak 
of,  and  the  powerful  coast  currents  which  to  a  stranger 
might  be  dangerous  are  known,  every  inch  of  them, 
to  the  Sinhalese. 

Unfortunately  for  those  interested  in  the  pearl-fisheries, 
this  happy  condition  of  the  sea  only  exists  from  the  last 
week  of  February  till  the  second  of  April,  possibly  the 
end  of  April.  By  that  time  the  hot  season  is  over,  and 
the  island,  lying  as  it  does  in  the  course  of  the  two 
monsoons  (the  south-west  till  September  and  then  the 
north-east  till  January  and  February),  is  henceforth 
subject  to  heavy  seas  such  as  no  diver  could  descend  in. 
Hence  the  six  weeks1  season. 

On  reaching  the  banks  a  signal-gun  is  fired  and  then 
soundings  are  taken,  though  many  of  the  fishermen  know 
the  ground  so  well  that  this  may  often  be  a  superfluous 
measure  ;  still,  as  within  the  same  half  square  mile,  depths 
of  five  and  of  a  hundred  fathoms  can  exist  here,  the 
precaution  is  not  to  be  wondered  at. 

By  daylight,  the  whole  scene  on  the  pearl  ground  is  the 
very  antipodes  of  what  is  to  be  witnessed  among  a  British 

222 


PEARLS  AND   PEARL-DIVING 

fishing  fleet.  For  the  most  part  the  sea  is  dead  calm  and 
oily-looking ;  the  sky  is  a  brilliant,  cloudless  blue,  and 
the  sun  is  already  scorching  the  naked  shoulders  of  the 
fishermen,  for  the  boat  has  cast  anchor  at  but  nine  degrees 
above  the  equator.  Instead  of  the  muttered  word  or  two 
and  the  silent  obedience  to  orders  that  would  characterise 
an  English  or  American  crew,  there  is  a  frantic  babble 
of  tongues,  often  in  four  different  languages ;  violent 
gesticulating,  arguing,  and  squabbling,  and  an  occasional 
free  fight,  till  we  might  well  wonder  how  these  men  ever 
get  through  any  work  at  all.  But  the  overseer,  some- 
times a  Portuguese  or  an  Englishman,  restores  order  at 
last,  and  the  first  "  shift  "  of  divers  bestir  themselves  and 
make  ready  for  the  task.  Where  ten  divers  go  to  a  boat, 
they  work  in  shifts  of  five,  turn  and  turn  about. 

When  once  the  ropes  are  run  over  the  blocks  or  the 
gunwale,  all  signs  of  laziness  disappear ;  the  shouting  and 
bustle  certainly  do  not  diminish,  on  the  contrary,  they  are 
part  of  the  business,  as  will  presently  appear,  and  they 
rather  increase  three-fold.  Everyone  now  seems  to  move 
as  if  fixed  on  springs,  and  so  swiftly  is  the  work  carried  out 
that  it  is  not  until  you  have  watched  half  a  dozen  descents 
that  you  realise  what  is  being  done.  The  shift  of  divers 
stand  in  a  row  along  one  side  of  the  boat  and  beside 
each  of  them  is  a  sort  of  projection  something  like  a 
ship's  davit,  with  a  block  at  the  end  of  it,  through  which 
the  rope  will  be  hauled.  From  it  depends  a  short  length 
of  the  rope,  to  the  end  of  which  is  fastened  a  large, 
smooth  stone  weighing  about  forty  pounds.  Some  boats 
dispense  with  the  davit-like  contrivance,  in  which  case  the 

223 


PEARLS  AND  PEARL-DIVING 

rope  is  hauled  over  the  gunwale  like  the  tow-line  of  a  net. 
Others  have  merely  a  high  horizontal  rail  over  which  the 
rope  is  hauled. 

On  the  upper  side  of  the  stone  a  loop  like  a  stirrup  is 
left  in  the  rope,  large  enough  to  hold  the  naked  foot  of 
the  diver,  so  that  you  may  say  he  stands  on  the  stone  with 
one  foot  and  maintains  his  perpendicular  by  clinging  with 
one  hand  to  the  lowering  line.  At  a  signal  from  the  first 
diver,  his  rope  is  let  go  and,  weighted  by  the  stone,  he 
sinks  rapidly,  the  line-holders  continuing  to  pay  out  rope 
till  the  sudden  slacking  announces  that  the  bottom  is 
reached.  Instantly  one  of  the  crew  springs  to  the  gun- 
wale and  hauls  back  till  the  line  is  taut  again,  and  then, 
still  keeping  his  hand  on  it,  waits  for  the  jerk  that  may 
come  at  any  moment  from  below,  giving  the  signal  to 
draw  up. 

On  many  boats  the  divers  work  in  pairs,  one  lowering 
and  hauling  the  other  once  or  twice  and  then  changing 
about.  If  we  could  follow  one  of  these  black  bodies  to 
its  destination  we  should  see  the  diver  tearing  off  the 
oysters  in  bundles  from  the  rocks  or  shingle- bank,  almost 
squatting  on  his  hams,  or  hanging  to  a  reef  by  his  toes, 
one  arm  hooked  round  the  rope  while,  with  the  disengaged 
hand,  he  swiftly  packs  his  shells  into  the  net  bag  that 
hangs  over  his  shoulder.  At  last  he  can  stand  the  strain 
no  longer ;  he  pulls  the  rope  and  is  hoisted  up  as  fast  as 
the  windlass  handles  can  be  turned,  or,  if  the  boat  should 
not  possess  such  a  contrivance,  as  fast  as  one  or  two  men, 
hauling  hand  over  hand,  can  pull  in  the  warp.  When  he 
rises  above  water  there  are  hands  ready  to  help  him  into 

224 


PEARLS  AND  PEARL-DIVING 

the  boat,  often  a  very  necessary  measure  on  account  of  the 
strain  he  has  undergone. 

As  to  the  length  of  time  that  an  "  undressed "  diver 
can  remain  under  water,  there  is  remarkable  divergence; 
the  shape  of  the  man's  chest  and  shoulders  and  the  condi- 
tion of  his  heart  and  lungs  are  the  things  that  decide  that 
matter,  together,  of  course,  with  the  amount  of  pressure 
to  be  sustained.  Eighty  seconds  would  perhaps  be  a 
reasonable  average,  though  Mediterranean  sponge  divers 
have  been  known  to  stay  down  three  and  a  half 
minutes. 

But  does  not  a  sensible  diver  keep  one  eye  on  the 
oysters  and  the  other  on  the  sharks  ?  it  may  well  be  asked. 
Possibly;  but  some  of  them  are  constitutionally  unable  to 
keep  their  eyes  open  at  all,  relying  instead  on  their  sense 
of  touch ;  their  lids  drop  when  they  enter  the  water,  and 
cannot  be  raised  until  the  diver  comes  up  again,  as  many 
swimmers  are  aware  from  their  own  experience. 

As  to  the  sharks  which,  more's  the  pity,  certainly  do 
abound  in  the  Gulf  of  Manaar,  it  is  but  rarely  that  they 
pursue,  let  alone  attack,  a  pearl-diver,  and  we  may  regard 
ninety-nine  per  cent  of  the  ghastly  tales  about  these 
monsters  as  fables.  Sir  E.  Tennent,  who  may  be  taken 
as  an  authority  on  all  matters  relating  to  Ceylon,  writing 
over  forty  years  ago,  says  that  not  more  than  one  well- 
authenticated  instance  of  a  pearl-fisher's  meeting  his 
death  in  this  manner  could  be  quoted  within  a  space  of 
fifty  years.  In  the  first  place  the  shark  has  almost  in- 
variably a  dread  of  human  beings  and,  at  any  time,  may 
be  scared  away  by  sustained  noise.  The  presence  of  such 
p  225 


PEARLS  AND  PEARL-DIVING 

a  number  of  boats  and  the  splash  of  the  stone  weights 
are  enough  to  frighten  him  away  from  the  scene ;  indeed, 
the  shouting  and  bustle  of  the  crews  is  to  be  regarded 
largely  as  a  special  entertainment  got  up  by  the  Sinhalese 
with  the  avowed  intention  of  keeping  him  at  a  safe  dis- 
tance. The  dark  skins  of  the  divers,  too,  are  generally 
believed  to  constitute  in  themselves  a  sort  of  scare-shark, 
so  much  so  that  the  Arabs  and  the  more  light-skinned  of 
the  Ceylonese  are  in  the  habit  of  smearing  their  bodies 
with  a  semi-permanent  black  dye.  A  few  of  them  take  a 
further  precaution,  though  they  themselves  would  admit 
that  in  most  cases  it  is  a  needless  one ;  carry  in  their 
girdles  two  or  three  short  spikes  made  of  iron-wood  which, 
if  need  arise,  they  are  prepared  to  poke  into  the  eyes  of 
the  monster. 

One  rather  interesting  superstition  still  lingers  among 
a  few  of  the  older  divers  in  connection  with  the 
shark.  I  mean  the  resorting  at  the  beginning  of 
the  season  to  the  hereditary  shark-charmer,  a  being 
who  is  endowed,  they  maintain,  with  power  to  exor- 
cise the  voracious  creature,  and  turn  him  back  from 
any  person  thus  charmed ;  the  ceremony  connected  with 
the  exorcism  is  a  very  ancient  one,  presumably  rather 
magical  than  religious.  By  some  of  the  natives  an 
annual  visit  to  this  personage  is  thought  insufficient,  so  it 
occasionally  happens  that  a  boat's  crew  will  not  sail  unless 
the  charmer  or  some  individual  deputed  by  him  accom- 
panies them  to  the  pearl  ground. 

If  not  too  exhausted  by  his  efforts,  the  diver  on  coming 
to  the  surface  will  merely  hand  in  his  catch  and  hang  for 

226 


PEARLS  AND   PEARL-DIVING 

a  minute  to  the  boat's  side  while  he  takes  breath  and  then  go 
down  again  ;  but,  after  a  few  such  descents,  he  will  be  very 
willing  to  be  lifted  aboard  and  let  another  man  take  his 
place.  Working  thus  alternately,  diving  scarcely  stops 
for  an  instant  till  the  midday  signal  gun  is  fired,  or  till 
the  boat  is  full,  when  she  at  once  makes  for  the  shore  as 
fast  as  she  can,  anxious  to  be  as  near  first  in  the  field  as 
possible  in  order  to  get  a  good  price  for  her  cargo.  Some- 
times a  boatload  means  as  many  as  from  twenty  to  forty 
thousand  fish,  and  these,  packed  in  baskets  or  sacks,  are 
taken  ashore,  after  having  been  sealed  by  an  emissary 
from  a  watch-boat,  and  earned  to  a  large  enclosure  some 
distance  up  the  beach,  checked,  packed  in  heaps  of  a 
thousand,  and  promptly  offered  for  sale  by  the  auctioneers. 
Buyers  from  all  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and  of  all  classes, 
are  waiting  to  bid,  and  each  boatload  is  gradually  dis- 
posed of. 

Thus  heaped  up  out  of  their  natural  element,  the  fish 
are  dead  in  a  couple  of  hours,  and  then  the  heat  of  the 
sun  begins  the  work  of  putrefying  them.  The  smell — 
but  let  us  change  the  subject.  Artificial  means  of  opening 
the  oysters  have  been  tried  frequently  in  different  parts 
of  the  world,  as,  for  instance,  in  South  and  Central 
America  by  the  sixteenth-century  Spaniards,  who  were 
wont  to  force  the  valves  by  exposure  to  a  fierce  fire ;  but 
such  methods  have  generally  resulted  in  serious  damage  to 
the  contents  by  discoloration  and  breakage.  In  Ceylon 
also,  impatient  buyers,  imitating  the  example  of  the 
auctioneers,  who  are  forced  to  open  a  few  on  the  spot  as 
samples  of  what  the  heap  for  sale  is  likely  to  contain, 

227 


PEARLS  AND  PEARL-DIVING 

will  wrench  open  the  valves  with  their  knives.  In  the 
hands  of  an  experienced  man  this  is  a  risky  operation, 
and  when  performed  by  a  neophyte  it  is  largely  a  case  of 
fools  stepping  in  where  dredgers  fear  to  tread.  How  many 
laymen  can  open  a  "  common  or  garden  *  oyster  for  eating 
without  cutting  a  hole  in  their  hands,  and  hacking  the 
fish  into  a  nasty,  dirty  mess  ? 

When  the  few  days  of  putrefaction  have  done  their 
work,  "washing"  begins,  an  occupation  which  calls  for 
consummate  care  and  patience — and  plugged  nostrils. 
Taking  the  shells  a  couple  of  hundred  at  a  time,  the 
washers  throw  them  into  a  tub  of  water,  keeping  careful 
look-out  as  they  do  so  for  the  loose  pearls — the  most 
valuable  of  any — which  have  a  tendency  to  roll  away  and 
get  lost.  More  often  than  not  these  lie  near  the  mouth 
of  the  shell ;  but  they  may  also  be  concealed  within  the 
body,  or  near  the  hinge.  The  fish,  of  course,  sink,  while 
the  dust,  mites,  and  other  dross  rise  to  the  surface.  The 
dirty  water  is  gently  poured  off  and  replaced  by  fresh, 
and  so  on  till  nothing  remains  but  shells,  rotten  oysters, 
and  possible  pearls. 

Next,  the  shells  are  handed  out  and  closely  examined. 
Strangely  enough,  those  pearls  found  adhering  to  the 
upper  or  rounded  valve  are  generally  pronounced  worth- 
less, though,  naturally,  there  are  exceptions ;  those  on  the 
flat  valve  are  nipped  off  with  delicate  tools,  and  finally 
the  empty  shells  are  set  aside  for  the  value  of  the  nacre 
lining. 

Then  the  malodorous  mass  that  is  left  in  the  tub  has  to 
be  felt  and  examined  inch  by  inch  ;  work  that  can  only  be 

228 


PEARLS  AND   PEARL-DIVING 

done  by  people  endowed  with  delicacy  of  touch.  The 
men  engaged  in  this  are  watched  as  closely  as  diamond- 
field  negroes.  Many  employers  will  not  even  allow  them 
to  remove  their  hands  from  the  tub  except  to  give  up 
a  "find."  When  every  perceptible  pearl  has  been  ex- 
tracted, the  putrid  fish  is  laid  out  to  dry,  and  then  sorted 
all  over  again  for  the  sake  of  any  treasures  that  may 
have  been  allowed  to  pass  unnoticed. 

The  sorting  or  sifting  of  the  pearls  is  the  next  pro- 
cess ;  and  this  is  done  by  means  of  a  large  brass  colander. 
The  pear-shaped  and  the  larger  spherical  pearls  are  set 
aside  for  subsequent  drilling,  the  smaller  sifted  and  re- 
sifted  and  classed  according  to  their  size ;  the  smallest  of 
all  are  packed  away  for  export  to  China,  where  a  far 
greater  trade  in  "seed-pearls'"  is  done  than  the  local 
fisheries  can  possibly  keep  supplied.  Among  other  ways 
of  utilising  them,  the  Chinese  physicians  calcine  them  and 
employ  them  in  their  medicines. 

The  Ceylon  pearl-fisheries  are  probably  the  least 
reliable  of  any,  and  one  year's  returns  are  in  no  way 
a  guarantee  for  those  of  another.  This,  no  doubt,  is 
largely  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  the  varying  depths 
make  only  a  great  number  of  small  oyster-beds  instead  of  a 
few  large  ones ;  so  that,  even  without  taking  into  account 
the  cod  and  other  ground-fish  that  feast  on  shell  and 
oyster  whenever  occasion  arises,  the  number  of  "  brood " 
must  necessarily  fluctuate  when  at  any  time  the  spat  as  it 
is  cast  is  liable  to  float  away  to  depths  beyond  reach 
of  even  a  "  dressed  "  diver. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Arabian  fisheries,  that  are 

229 


PEARLS  AND  PEARL-DIVING 

carried  on  near  the  coast  of  the  island  of  Bahrein  in  the 
Persian  Gulf,  seem  to  vary  very  little  from  one  year 
to  another,  their  average  annual  worth  being  reckoned  at 
about  three  hundred  thousand  pounds. 

Those  of  Western  Australia,  too,  are  proving  both 
regular  and  remunerative.  The  native  Polynesian  divers 
who  are  employed  often  prefer  to  go  down  unweighted, 
first  smearing  their  bodies  with  grease.  Among  these 
folk  the  women  are  unquestionably  the  better  divers. 

Some  allusion  should  be  made  here  to  a  comparatively 
new  industry — pearl-shell  fishing,  which  is  greatly  on  the 
increase  owing  to  the  manufacture  of  artificial  pearls  and 
to  the  steady  demand  for  mother-of-pearl.  Nearly  all 
round  the  coast  of  Australia  as  well  as  in  the  Dutch  East 
Indies,  mussels,  oysters,  and  kindred  fish  are  continually 
being  dived  or  dredged  for,  solely  for  the  sake  of  the 
nacre  which  they  contain.  West  Australia  alone  sends 
away  about  a  hundred  thousand  pounds'  worth  of  such 
shells  every  year — just  four  times  the  value  of  that 
colony's  pearl-fisheries.  At  this  work  also,  the  Polynesian 
divers  are  in  great  request. 

Apropos  of  artificial  pearls,  there  is  a  considerable  in- 
dustry among  the  Mediterranean  fishermen  in  netting 
the  argentine,  a  very  brilliant,  silver-coloured  fish  of  the 
salmon  order.  When  caught  it  is  opened,  and  its  sound 
or  air-bladder  removed  and  specially  treated  for  the  sake 
of  the  coat  of  nacre  with  which  that  part  of  its  anatomy 
is  covered. 


230 


CHAPTER  XIX 
WHALES   AND   WHALING 

A  profitable  if  risky  industry— One  or  two  historical  details— The 
home  of  the  whale— Old  and  new  methods  of  catching  him — 
Harpoons—"  Blowing  "—The  whale's  trail— Throwing  the  harpoon 
J--A  nerve-destroying  trade — The  tow-line— Other  shots  at  the 
monster— A  cut  at  the  tail— The  death— Cutting  up— The  whale's 
enemies  —  Rorquals  and  cachalots  —  A  modern  whaler  and  its 
equipment — The  harpoon-gun  and  the  bomb-lance — A  disappoint- 
ing whale— Various  uses  to  which  the  carcass  is  devoted — Sperm 
oil  and  ambergris. 

THE  Cetacea,  the  order  to  which  the  whale,  as  well 
as  the  porpoise  and  the  dolphin  belong,  are  marine 
mammals,  more  or  less  fish-like  in  form,  warm- 
blooded, breathing  by  means  of  lungs,  and  inhaling  air 
while  on  the  surface  of  the  water.  You  may  seek 
throughout  the  animal  kingdom  and  not  find  a  creature 
more  valuable  after  it  is  dead ;  not  an  ounce  of  it  need 
be — or,  nowadays,  is — wasted ;  blood,  bones,  skin,  en- 
trails, all  are  of  some  use;  and  the  man  who  gave  two 
hundred  pounds  for  a  carcass  might  look  to  make  cent 
per  cent  profit  on  his  investment. 

The  body  is  more  or  less  spindle-shaped,  ending  in  a 
tail  which,  unlike  that  of  the  fish,  is  transversal  or  hori- 
zontal. It  is  this  member  that  is  mainly  instrumental 
in  moving  the  enormous  body,  for  its  flippers  are  rela- 

231 


WHALES  AND  WHALING 

lively  weak  and  are  used  principally  to  balance  its  move- 
ments. The  nostrils  are  usually  placed  on  the  upper 
part  of  the  head,  by  which  arrangement  the  whale  can 
breathe  without  raising  the  head  far  above  water;  the 
skin  is  hairless.  Whales  proper  are  generally  classified 
as  toothless  and  toothed;  the  first  group  including  the 
Rorqual  and  the  Arctic  or  Right  whale ;  the  second  the 
Cachalot  or  Sperm  whale. 

The  whale-fishery  dates  back  to  very  ancient  times. 
The  tales  of  whaling,  as  prosecuted  by  the  early  American 
Indians,  are  not  perhaps  to  be  taken  seriously ;  the  tale, 
for  instance,  of  the  intelligent  Florida  savages,  who  were 
wont  to  spring  on  the  back  of  the  creature,  plug  up  one 
of  his  nostrils  with  a  wooden  peg,  go  down  to  the  bottom 
with  him  and  up  again ;  hammer  another  plug  into  the 
second  nostril  and  then  leave  him  to  suffocate.  But  of 
the  antiquity  of  harpooning  there  can  be  no  doubt.  It 
is  said  of  Leviathian,  in  the  Book  of  Job,  "  Canst  thou 
fill  his  skin  with  barbed  irons,  or  his  head  with  fish- 
spears  ?  " 

And  there  is  certainly  no  room  for  doubt  as  to  the 
ancient  Eskimo  method,  for  many  of  these  strange  little 
people  still  follow  the  plan  with  which  they  are  credited 
in  very  early  chronicles  of  travel.  A  flotilla  of  kayaks 
surrounds  one  of  these  monsters,  and  the  hunters  throw 
harpoons,  to  which  huge  bladders  made  of  sealskin  are 
attached.  With  a  few  of  such  spears  sticking  into  it,  the 
poor  whale  cannot  possibly  dive  (or  "sound"),  for  he 
is  very  effectually  buoyed  to  the  surface  by  the  bladders, 
and  the  Eskimos  can  slaughter  him  at  their  leisure. 

232 


WHALES   AND   WHALING 

Otherus,  a  ninth-century  German  navigator,  saw  more 
than  two  hundred  whales  taken  in  two  days  by  Biscayan 
fishermen  in  the  White  Sea ;  in  fact,  the  Biscayans  had 
practically  the  whole  of  the  whaling  industry  in  their 
hands  up  till  the  seventeenth  century ;  for  most  nations 
(the  Japanese  and  the  Eskimos  excepted)  regarded  the 
pursuit  of  the  monster  rather  as  a  sport  than  as  a 
business. 

The  Spaniards  and  the  Dutch  forcibly  took  the  trade 
away  from  the  Biscayans,  who  fell  into  the  secondary 
position  of  guides  and  teachers,  and  even  English  mariners 
were  glad  to  learn  of  them.  In  the  seventeenth  century 
the  Dutch  applied  their  proverbial  business  capacity  to 
the  work ;  pursued  the  whales  to  Spitzbergen,  and  founded 
the  village  of  Smeerenbourg  ("  Grease  Town ")  on 
Amsterdam  Island ;  and,  when  the  animals  were  gradually 
chased  from  that  neighbourhood,  instituted  the  Green- 
land fishery. 

For  a  long  while  the  British  met  with  but  poor  success 
at  the  business ;  but,  in  1762,  Government  offered  large 
subsidies  (which  were  doubled  in  1749),  and  so,  bit  by 
bit,  England  and  her  colonies  rose  to  the  front  rank  as 
whalers. 

Up  to  the  earlier  part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  a 
favourite  ground  for  the  fishery  was  round  about  Disko 
Island ;  but  now  many  of  the  Arctic  whales  have  sought 
refuge  still  further  north  in  Baffin  Bay,  etc.  In  the 
eighteenth  century,  explorers  from  the  United  States 
resolved  to  try  whaling  off  the  Falkland  Islands  and 
Patagonia,  and  pushed  their  researches  to  the  Antarctic 

233 


WHALES   AND   WHALING 

regions ;  and  now  America  and  England  rely  largely  on 
the  produce  of  these  fishing  grounds.  But  it  is  not 
necessarily  the  cold  latitudes  in  which  we  must  look  for 
whaling;  the  African,  Australian,  and  New  Zealand 
coasts ;  Japan,  Corea,  and  Norway  offer  ample  scope  ;  for 
the  whale  will  go  wherever  he  can  find  food,  whether 
the  latter  be  the  molluscs  of  the  French  and  Scotch 
coasts,  or  the  opossum  shrimps  of  the  Arctic  regions. 
When  a  whale  is  thrown  ashore  or  caught  near  the  coast 
in  the  British  Isles,  it  is,  like  the  sturgeon,  a  Fish  Royal, 
the  head  being  the  property  of  the  king,  and  the  tail, 
of  the  queen. 

Steam  and  gunpowder  have  robbed  whaling  of  its 
sporting  and  romantic  features  to  a  very  great  extent, 
but  not  altogether ;  you  cannot  go  into  deep  water,  what- 
ever may  be  your  boat  and  equipment,  in  pursuit  of  a 
giant  considerably  longer  than  a  cricket-pitch,  that  may 
elect  to  smash  all  the  small  boats — and  some  of  the  large 
ones — within  reach  of  his  ponderous  tail,  without  feeling 
a  little  bit  like  a  mighty  hunter.  The  Norwegian  and 
American  fishermen  laugh  at  the  notion  of  harpooning 
a  whale  in  the  old-fashioned  style ;  and  use  only  the 
harpoon-gun — which  we  shall  presently  consider.  But 
first  let  us  watch  the  traditional  method,  which  we  can 
do  very  well  from  a  Dutch  or  Shetland  whaler. 

The  ship  will  probably  be  a  three-master,  with  fore- 
and  main- mast  square-rigged,  having  a  crew  of  five-and- 
thirty;  and  with  her  will  be  half  a  dozen  four  or  five- 
oared  boats.  When  a  likely  ground  is  reached  a  look- 
out man  is  posted  aloft,  and,  at  his  signal,  the  small 

234 


WHALES   AND   WHALING 

boats  are  lowered.  At  the  helm  of  each  boat  is  an  old 
hand  with  whom  most  of  the  responsibility  rests ;  in  the 
bows  is  the  harpooner,  waiting  to  throw  as  soon  as  the 
word  of  command  is  given. 

The  harpoon  calls  for  some  description.  It  is  about 
three  and  a  half  feet  long  and  has  two  parts — the  iron, 
and  the  handle  or  shank,  which  carries  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
of  rope.  The  iron  tapers  from  the  shank  to  the  neck 
above  the  barbs,  then  spreads  out  into  a  broad-barbed 
spear-head,  the  outer  edges  of  which  are  very  keen,  while 
the  shoulders  are  thick  and  blunt ;  so  that  when  once  the 
barbs  are  fleshed  there  is  no  pulling  them  out. 

Suddenly  the  coxswain  sees  a  sort  of  broad  whirlpool 
or  eddy  spreading  near  the  boat,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
there  is  a  rumbling  and  an  upheaving  in  the  same 
vicinity ;  then  a  black  muzzle  and  blow-holes  appear  on 
the  surface  ;  the  whale  has  come  up  to  breathe.  Then  up 
shoots  a  double  column  of  vapour  from  the  blow-holes, 
each  column  curving  outwards  and  rising  several  yards  in 
the  air;  then  the  head  and  tail — perhaps  the  whole 
body — become  visible,  only  to  sink  again  before  a  harpoon 
could  possibly  be  made  to  reach  him.  The  whale  does 
not  do  things  on  a  small  scale ;  when  he  breathes  he 
makes  himself  heard  several  hundred  yards  away,  and,  if 
he  is  agitated,  the  sound  is  audible  for  a  mile  or  two. 
The  "  columns  "  are  composed  of  the  warm  air  from  the 
lungs  of  the  animal,  mingled  with  some  amount  of  watery 
vapour  and  particles  of  fatty  matter,  hence  they  are  only 
visible  when  the  surrounding  temperature  is  low,  just  as 
we  can  only  "  see  our  own  breath "  on  a  cold  day.  The 

235 


WHALES   AND   WHALING 

vapour  quickly  dissolves,  but  the  greasy  particles  are  left 
lying  on  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  so  afford  an  indis- 
putable "trail,"  which  the  whalers  are  not  slow  to  take 
advantage  of. 

The  coxswain  has  carefully  noted  the  angle  at  which 
the  creature's  tail  was  inclined,  for  that  is  an  indication 
of  the  direction  it  will  have  followed;  also  the  quantity 
of  the  grease  spots,  from  which  he  will  be  able  to  tell 
whether  the  whale  has  taken  a  long  or  a  short  breath,  for 
upon  this  depends  the  length  of  time  it  will  remain  under 
water,  and  according  to  his  deductions  he  gives  his  com- 
mands to  the  crew. 

Presently  comes  a  repetition  of  the  rumbling  and  eddy- 
ing ;  the  helmsman  has  not  been  far  out  in  his  reckoning ; 
the  whale  is  coming  to  the  surface  only  thirty  yards  away 
from  his  boat ;  the  other  crews  see  it  and  start  rowing 
with  all  their  strength.  But  the  coxswain  of  the  nearest 
boat  takes  things  gently;  certainly  he  wants  to  get  within 
half  a  dozen  yards  of  the  whale,  but  he  does  not  want  his 
boat  to  come  in  contact  with  the  animal's  tail,  or  to  get 
a  knock  with  a  huge  flipper  that  will  swamp  her  or 
smash  her  to  splinters. 

Holding  his  spear  with  both  hands,  and  supporting 
himself  against  the  curves  of  the  bow,  the  harpooner 
awaits  the  signal. 

"  Let  go  ! "  or  "  Strike ! "  shouts  the  cox  suddenly,  and 
all  the  men  hold  their  breath  in  their  excitement  and 
suspense,  for  so  much  depends  on  the  shot.  If  the  harpoon 
should  be  thrown  awkwardly  or  with  insufficient  force,  it 
may  merely  prick  the  skin,  and  fall  out  again  by  its  own 

236 


r 


HARPOONING  A  SPERM  WHALE 

As  the  coxswain  shouts,  the  harpoon  whizzes  through  the  air,  and  the  barbs,  cleaving 
their  way  through  skin  and  blubber,  fix  themselves  in  one  of  the  hard  elastic  muscles 
of  the  whale. 


WHALES   AND  WHALING 

weight ;  or,  having  taken  up  a  temporary  position  half  in 
and  half  out  of  the  flesh,  it  may  easily  be  expelled  by 
a  special  muscular  action  on  the  part  of  the  whale.  In 
either  of  these  cases  the  loss  that  would  be  sustained  by 
the  crews  is  incalculable,  for  the  wounded  creature, 
having  escaped,  will  gather  together  its  friends  and  its 
neighbours,  and  the  whole  "  school "  will  dash  away  out 
of  further  reach.  Judge,  then,  whether  the  harpooner 
should  not  be  a  man  of  unshakable  nerve.  Yet  some 
are  not ;  some  turn  livid  and  tremulous  the  moment  the 
harpoon  has  left  their  hands,  and,  if  the  shot  should  fail, 
probably  could  not  make  a  second,  even  if  the  lives  of  the 
crew  depended  on  it.  Seasoned  whalers  will  tell  you  that 
the  work  is  more  nerve-destroying  than  all  the  other 
fisheries  put  together.  The  risk  is  so  awful,  death  so 
certain,  if  a  false  step  be  made  ;  the  stake  at  issue  such  a 
huge  one  (for  so  great  are  the  rewards  that  a  poor  man 
may  become  rich  in  no  time),  that  everything  combines  to 
make  whaling  infinitely  worse  than  pearl-diving,  and  as  bad 
as  the  gambling-tables,  as  far  as  nerves  are  concerned. 

As  the  cox  shouts,  the  heavy  dart  whistles  across  the 
few  yards  of  space,  and  the  barbs  cleave  their  way 
through  skin  and  blubber  and  tissue,  fixing  themselves  in 
the  fibres  of  one  of  the  tough  elastic  muscles  which  close 
over  them  with  a  spring,  and  from  which  they  can  never 
be  torn  while  the  animal  remains  alive. 

"  Good  shot ;  look  out  for  the  line ! "  says  the  man  at 
the  helm. 

The  harpooned  whale  has  this  in  common  with  the 
hooked  salmon — you  never  know  what  he  will  do  next. 

237 


WHALES   AND   WHALING 

It  goes  without  saying  that  a  great  deal  depends  on  where 
he  is  hit ;  if  a  motor  nerve  or  important  muscle  is  badly 
injured  he  may  try  to  make  a  hurried  escape,  and  yet  be 
deterred  from  doing  so  by  the  pain  which  his  first  instinc- 
tive motion  causes.  Thus  there  may  be  time  for  a  second 
harpoon,  either  from  the  same  man  or  the  cox,  or  even 
from  another  boat ;  for,  badly  hurt  or  not,  the  animal 
generally  hesitates  for  a  few  moments  before  deciding  on 
a  course  of  action. 

Suddenly  it  plunges  under — keep  clear  of  the  rope  if 
you  value  your  life.  A  trawl  tow-warp  is  bad  enough  to 
get  entangled  in  ;  but  if  you  should  be  caught  in  the  coil 
of  a  harpoon-line  you  are  in  for  a  journey  of  a  couple  of 
hundred  yards  or  more — in  the  direction  of  the  bottom. 
The  line,  which  is  probably  coiled  in  a  couple  of  tubs, 
runs  out  at  terrific  speed  till  you  begin  to  think  that  this 
part  of  the  sea  is  bottomless.  But  after  a  time  the  rate 
is  reduced  till  the  coil  scarcely  seems  to  move ;  the  rope 
hangs  slack,  and  so  far  perpendicular  that  you  find  your- 
self wondering  whether  the  whale  intends  coming  up  im- 
mediately under  you.  Another  move  of  the  line ;  no 
more  runs  out,  but  the  part  that  hangs  over  the  bow  is 
taking  a  horizontal  direction,  and,  a  hundred  yards  or  so 
to  leeward,  a  similar  whirlpool  to  that  which  you  noticed 
before  is  forming;  a  bluish  patch  rises  above  water  and 
moves  forward  at  a  moderate  pace  till  the  line  is  taut 
again ;  the  whale  has  come  to  the  top,  still  conscious  that 
something  is  sticking  into  it  and  cannot  be  got  rid  of,  but 
not  yet  prepared  to  find  a  boat-load  of  men  hitched  to 
that  something. 

238 


WHALES   AND   WHALING 

Meanwhile  other  boats  are  rowing  "  full  tilt,"  to  get  in 
a  shot  at  the  prize,  the  more  so  that,  now  the  animal  has 
appeared  above  water,  it  is  seen  that  the  harpoon  has 
fallen  too  low — too  near  the  belly — to  cause  a  really 
serious  wound.  The  only  hope  is  to  get  up  with  him 
again,  or  else  to  be  content  to  let  him  tire  himself  out,  a 
proceeding  which  may  last  all  day  and  possibly  all  night. 
'*"  One  boat  ahead  of  the  rest  seeks  a  convenient  spot  from 
which  to  throw,  for  a  whale  is  not  an  animal  to  be 
"  headed  off  in  front "  at  pleasure.  Guided  by  the  lie  of 
the  tail,  the  cox  steers  for  where  he  can  be  moderately 
sure  of  safety  when  the  whale  starts  forward,  and  then 
shouts  to  his  harpooner.  The  spear  flashes  through  the 
air  and  seems  as  though  it  would  catch  the  monster  above 
the  fin-joint. 

But  before  the  point  can  reach  him,  the  whale,  having 
now  drawn  the  first  line  taut  enough  to  have  found  that 
there  is  resistance  at  the  end  of  it,  rolls  forward  without 
sinking,  and  the  second  harpoon  is  lodged  considerably 
nearer  the  tail  than  the  fin.  The  tortured  animal  wanted 
but  this  fresh  spur  to  goad  him  into  a  headlong  rush  for- 
ward ;  there  is  a  yell  from  the  first  boat  as  it  is  dragged 
almost  out  of  the  water  for  an  instant,  and  then,  at  the 
full  length  of  its  cable,  is  towed  along  at  break-neck 
speed. 

"  Chuck  us  a  line,  sharp ! "  cries  the  cox  to  the  boat 
nearest  to  him  as  his  own  flies  past  her.  The  harpooner 
in  this  boat  is  prepared  for  the  emergency  and  throws  his 
painter  deftly  into  the  hands  of  the  other  cox,  who  thus 
joins  up  the  two  little  vessels.  If  there  should  be  a 

239 


WHALES   AND   WHALING 

possible  chance,  a  third  will  seek  to  join  herself  on  in  like 
manner,  for  every  extra  weight  will  tend  to  shorten  the 
whale's  journey. 

Groaning  and  roaring  so  that  it  can  be  heard  three 
miles  away,  the  wounded  creature  dashes  on  till  it  has 
exhausted  the  length  of  line  that  hangs  to  the  second 
harpoon,  then  pauses  for  a  moment,  for  it  finds  the  weight 
behind  increased  by  a  third  boat.  Now  it  is  the  turn  of 
the  helmsmen  to  feel  nervous ;  each  one  of  them  has  but 
two  eyes — one  for  his  boat,  and  one  for  the  whale ;  and 
just  now  he  would  give  a  considerable  sum  to  possess  a 
third,  to  keep  on  the  other  two  boats.  The  two  that  are 
tied  together  are  in  little  danger  from  each  other,  but  a 
collision  between  them  and  the  third  depends  largely  on 
the  whale's  pleasure.  He  has  enough  rope  to  keep  him 
from  "  rounding  on "  the  crews,  for  unless  anything  un- 
foreseen should  happen,  they  can  dodge  him  before  he  can 
get  to  them. 

The  remaining  boats,  meanwhile,  are  watching  for  an 
opportunity  of  giving  chase  whenever  possible,  or  are  lying 
in  wait  in  case  the  whale  should  turn  their  way.  One 
sharper  or  luckier  than  the  rest  has  been  able  to  pull 
round  to  the  whale's  far  side  as  he  stops,  doubtful  whether 
to  dive  again  or  not,  and  the  men  in  the  towed  boats 
breathe  a  little  more  freely  as  they  catch  a  glimpse  of  her 
sharp  bows  near  the  monster's  tail ;  for  they  know  that 
with  a  little  luck  a  fatal  blow  is  about  to  be  struck. 

The  harpooner  in  this  boat  is  leaning  so  far  forward 
that  every  moment  it  seems  as  if  he  must  overbalance ; 
holding  not  the  ordinary  harpoon,  but  a  broad-bladed  lance 

240 


WHALES   AND  WHALING 

or  a  tethered  axe.  His  crew  are  resting  on  their  oars,  or 
gently  back  watering  if  the  current  is  with  them,  while  he 
and  his  cox  stand  with  their  eyes  fixed  upon  the  enormous 
tail.  The  beast  is  going  to  dive  again  and,  the  moment 
the  tail  is  raised,  the  harpooner  is  going  to  try  for  a  cut 
at  the  backbone. 

The  tail  rises,  and  before  it  can  fall  or  the  head  dis- 
appear, the  harpooner,  at  the  risk  of  his  own  life  and 
those  of  the  crew,  throws  his  lance  under  it.  There  is 
another  fearful  roar  from  the  whale  which  almost  drowns 
the  cox's  shout  to  the  rowers  to  backwater,  and  the  tail 
drops  inert  as  the  four  oar-blades  lift  the  little  craft  out 
of  harm's  way. 

A  triumphant  shout  from  the  crew  informs  the  other 
boats  that  the  blood  is  streaming  from  the  new  wound, 
and  they  know  that  the  lower  part  of  the  whale's  verte- 
bral column  has  been  severed.  Meanwhile  these  others 
are  not  idle,  for  they  have  pulled  nearer  again,  and  their 
tow-ropes  are  once  more  hanging  slack  as  the  unfortunate 
animal  makes  another  dive.  This  time  he  scarcely  seems 
to  be  down  a  moment,  then  up  again,  and,  distracted  with 
pain  and  with  rage  at  not  being  able  to  shake  off  his  tor- 
mentors, makes  a  feeble  turn  to  the  right,  presenting  a 
broadside  to  the  three  boats  that  are  fast  coming  up  with 
him.  He  will  never  get  away  now,  for  his  principal  means 
of  locomotion  is  useless. 

Another  harpoon  whizzes  from  the  foremost  boat ;  the 

point  cleaves  its  way  through  an  artery  and  the  blood 

spurts  out  in  spasmodic  jets.     Again  he  dives,  but  for  less 

than  a  minute,  and  when  he  comes  up  to  blow  there  is 

Q  241 


WHALES   AND   WHALING 

something  else  ejected  from  the  blow-holes  besides  vapour 
— two  streams  of  blood,  which  the  fishermen  know  is  a  sign 
that  all  is  over  with  him.  He  may  live  another  hour, 
making  frantic  little  plunges  that  avail  him  nothing,  but 
he  will  never  swim  another  mile.  As  a  fresh  harpoon 
strikes  him  he  sounds  once  more,  this  time  almost  without 
a  roar ;  is  down  for  a  couple  of  minutes,  then  comes  up 
slowly  and  lying  on  his  back.  Poor  whale !  his  days  are 
ended ;  let  him  bleed — the  more  the  better ;  the  less  likely 
he  is  to  sink. 

And  now  the  body  must  be  towed,  perhaps  a  couple  of 
miles,  back  to  the  ship ;  heavy  work  for  even  four  or  five 
boats1  crews ;  but  at  last  the  enormous  carcass  is  pulled 
alongside  the  larger  vessel  and  moored  to  her ;  and  then, 
unless  they  are  going  off  after  another  catch,  the  work  of 
cutting  up  begins.  At  one  time  this  used  to  be  done  by 
the  men  standing  on  the  body  with  spiked  boots  and  cut- 
ting off  the  rolls  of  blubber  as  far  as  they  could.  A  more 
recent  method  consisted  in  cutting  away  the  flesh  under 
the  mouth  with  spade-shaped  axes ;  removing  the  tongue, 
and  then  slicing  off  the  blubber  in  almost  spiral  strips 
from  mouth  to  tail,  and  hauling  it  aboard.  The  blubber 
was  then  split  into  thicknesses  of  about  half  an  inch  and 
boiled  on  deck  over  a  furnace  that  was  kept  fierce  by  the 
unmelted  pieces  of  fatty  tissue  skimmed  from  the  top  of 
the  cauldron.  To  prevent  danger  from  fire,  there  was  a 
space  between  the  grate  and  the  deck,  through  which  cold 
water  constantly  flowed. 

The  average  amount  of  blubber  taken  from  a  whale 
would  be  about  twenty-five  tons.  The  blubber-coat  lies 

242 


WHALES  AND   WHALING 

immediately  under  the  skin,  and  is  six  inches  thick,  except 
that  on  the  under-lip,  which  generally  has  a  depth  of  two 
or  three  feet. 

The  toothless  whales  are  compensated  for  their  want  of 
teeth  by  the  presence  of  baleen,  or  "  whalebone,1'  which  is 
arranged  in  their  mouths  in  a  rather  peculiar  manner, 
plates  of  this  valuable  substance  lying  along  the  palate, 
their  inner  edges  terminating  in  fringes  of  filaments 
which  fall  like  a  curtain  over  the  interior  of  the  mouth, 
and  serve  as  a  strainer  to  the  animal's  food  ;  for,  as  is  well 
known,  the  swallowing  apparatus  of  this  species  is  relatively 
small,  the  largest  fish  it  can  take  being  a  herring. 

Mankind  is  not  the  whale's  only  enemy.  As  near  home 
as  the  Hebrides  a  battle  may  not  infrequently  be  seen 
between  a  whale  and  a  group  of  "threshers"  or  fox- 
sharks.  The  thresher  is  about  thirteen  feet  long,  and  has 
a  very  effective  weapon  in  its  upper  tail-fin,  which  is  as 
long  as  its  whole  body,  and  with  which  it  can  deal  a  blow 
of  terrific  power.  Sometimes  springing  several  yards  in 
the  air  (these  creatures  can  jump  as  high  as  a  mast-head) 
it  will  deal  bang  after  bang  on  the  luckless  leviathan,  the 
reports  of  the  blows  echoing  like  rifle-shots.  The  fisher- 
men say  that  there  is  a  secret  understanding  between  this 
amiable  fish  and  the  narwhal,  and  that  while  the  fox- 
shark  thrashes  above,  his  ally  thrusts  and  stabs  below,  till 
between  them  the  whale  bleeds  to  death  and  affords  them 
a  meal  or  two. 

Another  variety  of  the  toothless  or  baleen  whales  is 
the  Rorqual,  which  has  a  soft  back  fin  and  curious 

243 


WHALES   AND   WHALING 

puckers  along  its  upper  side,  and  sometimes  reaches  a 
length  of  more  than  a  hundred  feet.  Round  the  Maldive 
and  Seychelle  Islands,  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  are  the  fa- 
vourite hunting-grounds  for  them,  and  the  American  and 
Scandinavian  whalers  have  almost  a  monopoly  there. 

The  typical  toothed  whale  is  the  Sperm  or  Cachalot, 
eighty  feet  long,  and  frequenting  both  the  northern  and 
southern  seas.  It  is  easily  to  be  distinguished  from  any 
other  of  its  tribe,  if  only  by  its  enormous  square  head ; 
the  back  is  black,  the  belly  white,  the  skin  soft  and  silky. 
It  is  gregarious,  and  travels  in  shoals  of  a  couple  of 
hundred.  More  pugnacious  than  most  other  species,  it 
will  turn  to  bay  when  attacked,  and  will  deliberately 
charge  or  butt  the  pursuing  ship.  It  is  hunted  princi- 
pally for  the  sake  of  the  oil  secreted  in  its  head  and  in  a 
tube  running  along  its  back  (spermaceti)  ;  its  teeth  yield 
an  inferior  sort  of  ivory ;  its  body  is  used  up  like  those  of 
other  kinds,  and  ambergris  is  taken  from  its  entrails. 

It  has  become  proverbial  on  account  of  the  love  and 
care  bestowed  by  the  mother  on  her  young;  and  no 
wonder.  Over  and  over  again  fishermen  have  seen  the 
mother  sacrifice  her  life  for  the  sake  of  her  little  one. 
Indeed,  when  a  whale-boat  encounters  a  suckling  mother, 
it  invariably  attacks  the  young  one,  knowing  that,  in  her 
anxiety  to  save  the  offspring,  the  older  animal  will  not 
only  interpose  her  body  between  it  and  the  boat,  but  will 
be  so  taken  up  with  shielding  it  that  she  will  become  an 
easy  prey  to  the  harpoons.  She  will  even  put  her  fin 
under  the  little  thing^s  body  to  help  it  to  swim  the  faster 
when  pursued. 

244 


WHALES   AND   WHALING 

The  modern  whaler  is  very  different  from  anything  we 
have  yet  considered.  First,  there  is  the  stout  three  to 
five  hundred  ton  vessel,  with  her  crew  of  about  fifty 
hands,  her  six  or  eight  double-pointed  rowing  boats, 
thirty  feet  long,  and  manned  by  six;  her  seventy-five 
horse-power  engine,  with  her  armoury  of  windlasses, 
boilers,  oil-tank  (built  to  hold  nearly  three  hundred  tons 
of  oil),  and  her  general  workmanlike  turn-out.  And 
secondly,  there  is  the  boat  beloved  of  the  Norwegian  and 
American  whalers — a  still  more  business-like  craft ;  a  fast 
hundred-ton  twin  screw,  as  obedient  as  a  steam  yacht, 
with  an  elaborate  look-out  forward,  and  one  of  the  most 
deadly  inventions  of  our  day — the  harpoon-gun — rigged 
up  in  her  bows. 

The  first  may  be  seen  setting  off  from  Dundee  for  a 
two-year  cruise  in  the  Antarctic  regions ;  and  a  very 
gambling  prospect  she  has  before  her.  In  1895  a  Dundee 
boat,  the  Arctic,  came  home  from  a  short  trip  with  ten 
whales,  which  meant  five  tons  of  whalebone,  at  that  time 
worth  ten  thousand  pounds,  as  well  as  twenty  thousand 
gallons  of  oil.  Recent  scarcity  of  Antarctic  whales  has, 
of  course,  tremendously  increased  the  value  of  the  catches 
— to  such  an  extent,  in  fact,  that  whalebone,  which  fifty 
years  ago  sold  at  the  rate  of  a  shilling  a  pound,  is  now 
worth  about  thirty  times  that  amount. 

The  second  kind  of  boat,  which  in  a  few  years  is 
destined  to  drive  most  other  whalers  out  of  the  field,  may 
be  seen  to  the  best  advantage  south  of  Greenland. 
Watch  her  as  she  routs  out  a  cachalot  or  a  fin-back.  As 
before,  the  whale  heralds  his  appearance  by  roars  and 

24$ 


WHALES  AND   WHALING 

grumbles  and  eddies,  and  the  boat,  travelling  her  twelve 
or  thirteen  knots  an  hour,  is  quickly  in  a  position  to 
launch  her  deadly  shaft.  The  gun,  seventy-five  pounds 
in  weight,  four  and  a  half  feet  long,  including  three  feet 
of  barrel,  is  fixed  on  a  swivel ;  it  has  a  range  of  from 
thirty  to  forty  yards,  and  an  ordinary  pistol-handle. 
From  this  is  fired  the  "  bomb-lance,""  an  American  inven- 
tion, a  sort  of  improvement  on  Devisme's  balk  foudroy- 
ante.  It  is  a  cast-iron  tube  containing  a  small  quantity 
of  gunpowder ;  is  pointed  at  one  end,  and  at  the  other, 
which  is  tethered,  has  a  match  or  fuse  which,  when  the 
ball  has  penetrated  into  the  whalers  body,  explodes  the 
powder.  If  by  any  chance  this  explosion  should  take 
place  in  one  of  the  lungs,  the  whale  is  dead  instantly. 

Many  improvements  have  been  tried — some  carried  into 
effect — on  this  deadly  contrivance.  A  great  many  years 
ago,  when  it  was  first  used,  a  celebrated  French  scientist, 
Dr.  Thiercelin,  tried  the  addition  of  various  chemicals  to 
the  powder  in  the  bomb,  and  ten  Newfoundland  whales 
shot  in  this  manner  died  within  spaces  varying  from  four 
to  eighteen  minutes. 

The  still  newer  Norwegian  improvement  is  a  bomb  with 
a  shank  fitted  to  it ;  the  bomb  enters  the  whale's  body, 
carrying  with  it  this  shank,  explodes,  inflicting  dangerous 
if  not  mortal  injuries,  and,  as  the  animal  moves  forward, 
the  pull  on  the  line  to  which  the  weapon  is  fastened  sets 
free  two  or  four  grips,  or  pins  hinged  at  one  end,  which 
embed  themselves  barb-like  in  the  flesh,  thereby  fixing  the 
shank  so  that  it  cannot  possibly  move. 

As  the  boat  comes  within  a  few  fathoms  of  the  whale, 

246 


WHALES  AND  WHALING 

the  gun  is  fired,  its  explosion  being  echoed  by  a  second  as 
the  bomb  bursts,  and  the  whale  gives  an  agonised  bellow 
and  disappears,  dragging  the  tow-line  after  it  at  electric 
speed.  It  should  be  mentioned  that  the  cachalot  can 
comfortably  remain  under  water  for  nearly  an  hour. 
When  he  comes  up  again  perhaps  he  is  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  away,  blowing  and  roaring  so  that  we  suspect  he  has 
not  been  injured  in  the  vital  part.  Steam  is  put  on,  but 
not  too  much;  at  any  moment  the  formidable  giant  is 
capable  of  turning  and  making  a  dash  at  its  pursuers,  and 
while  one  half  of  the  skipper's  energies  are  expended  in 
trying  to  get  within  range  again,  the  other  half  are  given 
up  to  preparing  to  dodge  any  sudden  turn  the  whale  may 
be  pleased  to  make. 

But  instead  of  charging  he  sounds  again,  perhaps 
several  times  ;  the  boat  hesitates  and  slows  down.  On  his 
reappearance  there  are  signs  that  he  is  weaker ;  true,  he 
now  begins  to  try  the  full  length  of  his  tether ;  he  even 
starts  to  tow  the  boat  along  at  a  good  rate,  but  his  speed 
very  soon  flags. 

"  Don't  spend  another  charge  on  him ;  let  him  tire 
down,"  is  the  skipper's  order  to  the  men  in  the  bow ;  and, 
even  as  he  speaks,  the  rope  slacks  again,  and  very  slowly 
the  mighty  body  begins  to  roll  over  on  to  its  back.  A 
chorus  of  cheering  rises  from  the  boat,  but  is  speedily 
changed  into  a  chorus  of  something  else  as  the  whale 
suddenly  disappears  from  view.  The  crew  look  gloomy, 
and  with  good  reason ;  they  can  cut  away  that  cable  as 
soon  as  they  like,  for  the  whale  has  sunk  and  will  shortly 
be  the  sole  property  of  a  colony  of  fifteen-foot  Greenland 

247 


WHALES  AND   WHALING 

sharks   that   are   lying   in  wait  with  an  eye  to  such  a 
contingency. 

Naturally  everyone  has  a  reason  to  offer  for  the  disaster; 
one  fellow  swears  that  the  whale  was  wounded  in  the 
abdomen ;  another  that  it  never  once  spouted  blood ; 
either  may  be  right ;  for  half  a  dozen  reasons  a  dead 
whale  is  liable  to  sink ;  invariably  if  the  water  have 
rushed  into  its  windpipe. 

Such  accidents,  however,  are  comparatively  rare ;  it  is 
more  likely  that  the  whale  will  float,  and  that  the  sharks 
will  be  cheated  by  his  being  towed  ashore ;  or,  if  the  boat 
has  a  busy  day  before  it,  by  his  being  buoyed  up  and  left  for 
a  time.  Boats  of  this  sort,  that  go  no  great  distance  from 
home,  carry  no  gear  for  quartering  the  whale ;  they  merely 
tow  the  carcass  as  near  to  the  shore  as  possible,  whence 
it  is  drawn  in  chains  up  the  beach,  by  steam-power,  to  the 
butchering  sheds.  On  some  boats  they  have  a  practice, 
before  mooring  the  body,  of  inflating  it  with  air  pumped 
in  by  the  engines,  very  much  as  boys  blow  out  a  frog  ;  it 
can  then  be  hitched  to  a  buoy  without  fear  of  its  sinking, 
unless  one  of  its  enemies  comes  along  and  makes  a  hole  in 
it — a  danger  which  is  warded  off  by  a  man  and  a  gun 
being  left  in  charge,  in  a  small  boat. 

I  said  further  back  that  not  an  ounce  of  the  whale  need 
be  wasted ;  its  flesh  is  as  sweet  and  wholesome  as  beef ; 
the  oil,  and  the  whalebone  from  the  toothless  whales,  are 
of  course  of  great  value ;  the  skeleton  is  made  up  into  all 
sorts  of  "  earthenware  "  vessels  ;  and  now  some  sages  have 
arisen  to  show  that  the  skin  can  be  tanned  for  leather  and 
the  milk  of  the  females  converted  into  condensed  milk. 

248 


WHALES   AND  WHALING 

The  spermaceti  from  the  head  of  the  cachalot  is  freed 
from  the  phocenine  or  rank  oil  which  it  contains  by  treat- 
ing it  with  chloride  of  lime,  oak-bark,  and  sulphuric  acid ; 
is  clarified,  and  henceforth  known  as  sperm  oil,  a  crystalline 
solid  fat  from  which  wax  candles  are  made. 

One  more  word  about  the  other  valuable  whale-product 
— ambergris,  which  is  simply  incompletely  digested  food 
taken  from  the  intestines,  generally  in  hard  lumps,  four 
or  five  from  each  cachalot.  It  is  of  the  consistency  of 
beeswax,  so  much  so  that  it  adheres  to  the  knife  when  it 
is  scraped  and  a  moderate  heat  suffices  to  make  it  soft  and 
oily.  Its  peculiarly  sweet  scent  is  increased  by  heat  or 
friction.  Immense  quantities  are  imported  into  Southern 
Europe  for  the  manufacture  of  perfumery,  and  among 
the  Easterns  it  is  still  used  as  a  flavouring  in  cooking. 


249 


CHAPTER   XX 
HOW   SPONGES  ARE   PROCURED 

What  sponge  is — Where  it  grows— Sponge-diving— The  undressed 
diver — A  *' dressed"  diver  at  work — His  dress — The  diver  on  the 
bottom — Signals — Coming  up — Dredging  for  sponges — Awkward 
gear — Sponge-harpooning — The  spy-glass — The  Adriatic  trade — 
Sponge-culture — Florida  Keys— Sponge-hooking  in  the  Bahamas. 

A  SPONGE  is  a  skeleton,  not  of  one  animal  but  of 
countless  thousands,  and  it  represents,  as  Professor 
Huxley  has  expressed  it,  "  a  kind  of  sub-aqueous 
city,  where  the  people  are  arranged  about  the  streets  and 
roads  in  such  a  manner  that  each  can  easily  appropriate 
his  food  from  the  water  as  it  passes  along." 

This  skeleton  may  be  flexible  and  elastic  and  horny,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  ordinary  washing  sponge  ;  or  it  may  be 
calcareous,  chalky,  and  therefore  useless  for  the  purposes 
to  which  we  ordinarily  devote  this  substance.  The 
animals  which  inhabit  it,  and  which  are  almost  at  the 
bottom  of  the  zoological  ladder  (for  they  come  under  the 
head  of  protozoa),  take  the  form  of  a  jelly-like  mass,  not 
unlike  the  uncooked  white  of  an  egg ;  and  this  separates 
itself  from  its  shell  or  skeleton  when  the  sponge  is  lifted 
out  of  the  water  and  squeezed. 

Sponges  are  not  by  any  means  confined  to  salt  water, 
although  those  of  commerce  are  invariably  marine ;  nor 

250 


HOW  SPONGES  ARE  PROCURED 

are  they  necessarily  a  rarity  in  any  warm  or  temperate 
part  of  the  sea,  but  they  develop  better  and  reproduce 
more  freely  in  some  beds  than  in  others.  They  were 
regarded  by  the  old  naturalists  as  peculiar  to  the  Mediter- 
ranean, but  we  all  know  that  small  varieties  are  found 
round  the  British  coasts ;  the  beautiful  "  mermaid's 
glove  "  or  five-fingered  sponge  is  not  seldom  found  in  the 
oyster-dredge,  or,  for  that  matter,  on  the  fish-hook. 
Moreover,  in  the  year  1840,  a  European  sponge-merchant 
discovered  that  the  valuable  substance  was  as  common  as 
mussels  on  the  reef  between  Florida  and  the  Bahamas, 
and  since  then  the  West  Indian  industry  has  in  some 
respects  promised  to  rival  that  of  the  Mediterranean. 

The  spongy  skeleton  adheres  very  firmly  to  the  sea- 
bottom  or  the  rocks  on  which  it  grows,  and  how  to  obtain 
it  uninjured  is  a  very  serious  problem,  which  the  fishermen 
have  endeavoured  to  solve  in  various  ways :  by  diving,  by 
dredging,  and  by  harpooning  or  hooking. 

The  first  method  is  the  oldest  and,  from  the  merchant's 
point  of  view,  the  safest  and  most  profitable,  and  it  has 
been  practised  round  about  the  Greek  Islands,  Sicily,  the 
levant,  and  the  north  of  Africa  for  ages.  Six  thousand 
men  are  now  employed  in  the  Levant  sponge-fishery  alone, 
and  about  the  same  number  in  other  parts  of  the 
Mediterranean.  These  Greek  divers,  like  those  of  Ceylon, 
are  trained  to  their  task  almost  from  infancy,  and  become 
gradually  accustomed  to  working  under  water  and  to 
enduring  a  pressure  so  great  that  less  than  half  of  it 
would  mean  death  to  the  untrained  man. 

But  sponge  sometimes  chooses  a  depth  of  from  one  to 

251 


HOW  SPONGES  ARE  PROCURED 

two  hundred  fathoms  for  its  habitation,  and  we  have 
seen,  in  the  case  of  the  pearl-divers,  that  thirteen  fathoms 
is  a  depth  that  taxes  an  undressed  diver's  powers  to 
almost  their  full  extent.  Some  of  the  Sicilians  and 
Greeks  will  venture  to  fifteen,  but  the  brief  time  which 
they  are  able  to  remain  under  water  at  that  depth  is  of 
little  use  for  such  hard  and  lengthy  work,  and  the  effort 
seems  almost  to  rob  them  of  the  power  to  wrench  the 
larger  sponges  free  from  their  natural  moorings.  There- 
fore, the  boat-owners  have  of  late  years  been  glad  to 
engage  professional  divers  of  another  sort  from  England 
and  France,  or  from  among  their  own  people,  who,  when 
"  dressed,"  can  remain  down  a  very  considerable  length  of 
time.  Such  men  boast  that  they  could  stay  for  ever  in 
five-fathom  water,  and  any  one  of  them  who  knows  his 
business  can  do  sponge- work  in  fifteen  fathoms  for  at 
least  an  hour,  and  can  remain  in  from  twenty  to  fifty 
fathoms  for  longer  than  an  undressed  diver  could  stay  in 
ten ;  all  the  same,  even  an  exceptionally  strong  British 
diver  would  refuse  to  work  for  any  length  of  time  in  more 
than  twenty-eight.  Hence  the  need  for  dredging,  or 
other  mechanical  means,  when  the  sponge-ground  is 
covered  with  more  than  fifty  fathoms  of  water. 

Let  us  watch  the  undressed  divers  first.  Their  way  of 
going  to  work  differs  in  some  respects  from  that  of  the 
pearl-fishers.  When  the  depth  has  been  taken,  and  the 
position  of  the  sponges  ascertained  by  means  of  a  spy- 
glass, a  rope,  equivalent  to  the  depth,  is  made  fast  by 
one  end  to  the  boat ;  to  the  other  end  is  tied  a  large 
white  stone,  triangular  or  oblong,  which  has  a  hole  drilled 

252 


HOW  SPONGES  ARE  PROCURED 

through  one  corner.  The  man,  instead  of  putting  his 
foot  in  a  loop,  gives  the  weighted  end  of  the  line  a  turn 
or  two  round  his  breast  and  then  springs  into  the  water  like 
an  ordinary  swimmer ;  some  prefer  merely  to  hold  the  rope 
by  one  hand.  Sharks,  we  know,  are  plentiful  hereabout, 
and  there  are  no  shark-charmers.  Still  one  seldom  hears 
of  a  diver  being  attacked ;  there  is  always  a  gun  or  two 
on  board,  and  there  is  the  same  amount  of  bustle  and 
splashing  and  shouting  as  in  the  Gulf  of  Manaar. 

Arrived  at  the  bottom,  the  diver — if  he  be  in  the 
habit  of  keeping  his  eyes  open — uses  the  white  stones  as 
a  landmark,  for  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  he  will 
be  lucky  enough  to  drop  in  the  middle  of  a  sponge-bed. 
If  the  water  be  clear  he  will  then  leave  go  of  the  rope 
and  wander  round,  always  able  to  find  his  way  back  as 
long  as  he  can  see  the  stone.  But,  as  often  as  not,  there 
is  trouble  going  on  at  the  bottom ;  a  fight  among  the 
ground-fish,  or  a  dolphin  poking  about  after  molluscs, 
and  the  water  is  as  thick  as  a  London  fog — even  the 
man's  own  movements,  in  some  grounds,  are  sufficient  to 
cloud  everything.  In  such  a  case  the  diver  dare  not  let 
go  of  the  rope,  but  must  carry  the  stone  about  with  him. 
Hurriedly  tearing  off  all  the  sponges  that  lie  to  his  hand, 
he  stuffs  them  into  his  net-bag  (some  men  carry  no  bag, 
but  tuck  their  gatherings  under  the  left  arm),  gives  a 
couple  of  jerks  to  the  rope,  and  he  and  the  bag  and  the 
stone  are  swiftly  hoisted  up. 

It  may  be  asked,  How  is  the  man  at  the  top  to  tell 
the  difference  between  the  signal  for  hauling  and  the 
natural  tugs  on  the  rope  caused  by  the  diver  in  moving 

253 


HOW  SPONGES  ARE  PROCURED 

from  point  to  point  ?  But  the  man  at  the  top,  it  must 
be  remembered,  is  a  fisherman,  and  the  sense  of  touch  of 
a  man  who  has  to  do  with  lines  acquires  a  subtilty  that 
might  almost  be  compared  to  a  musician's  "ear."  Un- 
consciously he  follows  every  one  of  the  diver's  movements 
hither  and  thither,  and,  in  ninety-nine  cases  out  of  a 
hundred,  could  be  relied  upon  to  haul  up  at  the  right 
moment  without  any  signal  at  all. 

The  diver  is  now  lifted  into  the  boat  and  gets  his 
breath  while  the  next  man  goes  down.  I  have  seen  it 
stated  that  whenever  these  fellows  come  to  the  surface, 
blood  flows  from  their  mouths,  ears,  and  noses.  How 
many  gallons  of  blood  do  the  authors  of  such  a  statement 
suppose  a  man  can  afford  to  lose  in  the  course  of  a  day  ? 
As  a  rule,  once  and  once  only  does  a  Mediterranean  diver 
expect  to  bleed  in  this  manner,  and  that  is  when  he  goes 
down  for  the  first  time  after  being  away  from  such  work 
some  months — as,  for  instance,  on  the  first  day  of  the 
season.  What  is  more,  the  divers  regard  this  as  not  only 
a  healthy  sign,  but  as  a  sign  that  they  are  fit  for  their 
work.  Indeed,  if  any  man  should  find  that  bleeding 
does  not  then  occur  he  will  not  attempt  another  descent 
that  day,  nor  will  he  start  regular  work  till  he  has 
bled. 

The  dressed  diver's  performance  is  a  far  more  preten- 
tious affair,  for,  as  the  reader  is  aware,  he  must  be  sup- 
plied with  air  all  the  time  he  is  down ;  also,  the  lowering 
and  hauling  of  a  man  to  whose  natural  weight  a  dress 
weighing  a  hundred  and  forty-seven  pounds  (ten  stone 
seven !)  is  added,  is  a  very  different  matter  from  dealing 

254 


HOW  SPONGES  ARE  PROCURED 

with  a  naked  man.  A  successful  diver  must  be  both  born 
and  made,  and  any  member  of  the  trade  could  tell, 
almost  at  a  glance,  whether  or  no  a  stranger  would  ever 
be  of  any  use  for  such  work.  The  ideal  diver  is  the  short 
or  medium -height  man,  with  markedly  sloping  shoulders 
and  very  deep  chest,  such  a  build  being  the  best  calcu- 
lated to  resist  the  terrible  water-pressure. 

The  dressing  of  the  man  is  rapidly  performed  by  one 
or  two  members  of  the  crew  ;  and  here  a  brief  description 
of  a  diver's  "  rig  "  may  be  of  interest  to  the  reader.  The 
"  dress "  goes  on  first,  and  consists  of  coat,  trousers,  and 
socks  all  in  one  piece ;  this  fits  very  loosely  to  the  figure, 
is  made  of  mackintosh  and  lined  with  india-rubber,  and 
round  the  cuffs  of  this  strange  garment  rubber  rings  are 
fastened  to  keep  it  water-tight  at  the  wrists.  Then 
comes  the  heavy  breast-plate  which  is  of  copper,  and 
serves  to  relieve  the  chest  of  undue  pressure  ;  and  to  this 
is  screwed  a  band  of  brass  which  goes  round  the  chest  to 
the  back.  The  heavily-weighted  boots  are  then  laced  on, 
and  the  cord  or  "  life-line "  knotted  loosely  round  the 
waist.  Lastly  there  is  the  somewhat  gruesome-looking 
helmet,  with  whose  shape  all  are  familiar;  the  "eyes" 
are  window-panes  on  a  small  scale,  protected  by  wire 
gauze.  The  life-line  is  then  carried  up  the  left  side  of  the 
body,  passes  through  a  clip  on  the  helmet,  then  is  brought 
down  again  over  the  chest  where  it  meets  a  short  cord 
which  has  also  been  tied  round  the  waist. 

Now  the  breathing  apparatus.  The  nozzle  of  a  wire- 
lined  rubber  tube,  like  a  garden-hose,  is  screwed  into 
a  hole  on  the  side  of  the  helmet ;  the  tube  is  carried 

255 


HOW  SPONGES  ARE  PROCURED 

under  one  arm,  and  looped  up  once  more  to  the  helmet ; 
the  other  end  of  the  tube  communicates  with  a  two- 
or  three-cylinder  air  pump.  It  can,  of  course,  be  joined 
up  to  any  length,  and  is  made  as  long  as  the  life-line. 

Thus  habited,  our  diver  is  lifted  over  the  side  of 
the  vessel  on  to  a  ladder  which  runs  some  little  distance 
under  water,  and  when  he  is  certain  that  all  his  gear 
is  quite  safe,  he  lets  himself  go.  One  man  watches  the 
life-line,  another  pays  out  the  tube,  and  one  or  two  more 
turn  the  handle  of  the  air-pump.  As  soon  as  he  reaches 
the  bottom,  the  diver  takes  from  his  shoulders  a  coil 
of  thin  cord  which  he  has  brought  down  with  him — 
the  "  track-line."  Perhaps  one  end  is  weighted ;  if  not 
he  ties  it  to  whatever  fixture  he  can  find  and  then  sets  off 
on  his  travels  to  the  end  of  his  tether,  which  is  a  fairly 
long  one,  letting  the  track-line  run  from  his  hand  as  he 
goes ;  stopping  every  now  and  then  to  gather  the  finest 
and  largest  sponges  he  can  see,  and  packing  them  as 
closely  as  possible  in  the  net-bag  that  hangs  over  his 
shoulders. 

If  the  trawler  feels  some  excitement  when  the  first 
opportunity  arrives  of  peeping  into  a  net  that  has  come 
up  from  the  bottom,  what  must  be  the  diver's  first  feel- 
ing on  finding  himself  free  to  roam  about  for  an  hour  on 
one  of  the  world's  oldest  if  not  richest  submarine  treasure- 
grounds?  What  would  not  most  antiquarians  give  to 
spend  an  hour  in  such  a  spot,  off  Sicily,  or  Cyprus,  or 
Greece  ? 

Men  can  gather  sponges  and  yet  keep  a  watchful  eye  on 
possible  submerged  treasure,  and  in  this  way  very  valuable 

256 


HAULING  UP  A  SPONGE-DIVER 

Nowadays  much  of  the  sponge-fishing  off  the  Greek  Islands  is  done  by 
"  dressed"  divers. 


HOW  SPONGES  ARE  PROCURED 

articles  have  often  been  fished  up.  Sometimes  the  diver 
brings  up  a  "  surprise  packet"  on  speculation.  I  knew  one 
Mediterranean  diver  who,  with  great  trouble  and  at  some 
risk,  succeeded  in  taking  on  board  a  mysterious  iron  box, 
that  suggested  at  least  deeds,  if  not  banknotes,  jewels, 
and  bonds.  When  he  came  to  open  it  in  the  presence  of 
an  admiring  and  expectant  crew,  he  found  nothing  but 
a  ruined  silk  hat  and  a  dozen  collars  that — insult  added 
to  injury — were  a  size  or  two  too  small  for  every  man 
on  board. 

Meanwhile,  how  has  our  man  been  managing  about  his 
breathing  ?  The  question  is  not  so  idle  as  might  seem,  for 
all  men  do  not  respire  alike,  and  inhaling  air  that  has 
been  pumped  down  from  a  height  of  about  sixty  yards,  is 
not  quite  the  same  thing  as  breathing  in  the  ordinary 
way.  Perhaps  too  much  air  is  being  sent  down  ;  perhaps 
not  enough;  perhaps  air  that  has  already  been  used  is 
being  forced  back  by  the  fresh  draught.  Certainly  the 
latter  should  not  occur  with  a  diver  who  knows  his  work ; 
for  the  helmet  contains  two  valves  through  which  all  foul 
air  can  be  ejected.  To  regulate  the  supply  from  above, 
one  of  the  crew  keeps  his  hand  continually  on  the  life- 
line, and  calls  out  the  signals  as  they  come  up  from  the 
bottom  to  the  men  who  are  working  the  pump.  If  the 
diver  wants  more  air  he  gives  three  sharp  jerks  at  the 
rope ;  if  he  already  has  too  much,  two  jerks.  From 
time  to  time  he  also  gives  a  special  "  all  right "  signal 
— a  very  necessary  precaution  when  he  may  not  be  ex- 
pected above  water  for  nearly  an  hour ;  for  in  that 
time  there  is  no  telling  what  might  happen.  Apart  from 
R  257 


HOW  SPONGES  ARE  PROCURED 

sharks,  saw-fish,  and  sword-fish  which  may  at  least  dis- 
commode the  diver  or  interfere  with  the  gear,  there  is 
always  the  possibility  of  something  going  wrong  with 
a  man's  heart  when  he  is  at  work  in  great  depths ; 
the  air-valves,  too,  cannot  be  guaranteed  never  to  get 
out  of  order ;  therefore  this  signal  is  resorted  to,  unless 
there  are  several  divers  working  together  on  the  same 
spot. 

When  he  can  remain  down  no  longer,  the  sponge-fisher 
very  carefully  fastens  his  bag  and  even  ropes  it  to  his 
body  ;  then  gives  the  "  pull  up "  signal — one  long  sus- 
tained pull  till  the  hauling  begins.  The  care  that  he  has 
expended  in  making  his  catch  quite  safe  is  explained  now. 
To  come  up  in  the  natural  position,  head  foremost,  re- 
quires a  certain  amount  of  effort  on  his  own  part ;  an 
awkward  or  half-exhausted  diver  may  come  up  feet  first, 
or  lying  on  his  back  or  face ;  for  there  is  no  certainty 
that  the  weights  will  "  trim  "  properly  when  the  dress  is 
inflated ;  and  that  being  the  case,  what  would  become  of 
a  loosely  fastened  bag  ? 

The  hauling  up  of  a  diver  is  not  greatly  different  from 
the  hauling  up  of  a  net  or  a  dredge,  as  regards  the  rope 
and  the  weight ;  it  is  hard  work  for  two  men ;  often  im- 
possible for  one.  But  there  is  also  the  tube  to  be  seen 
to,  and  this  is  where  the  difficulty  comes  in ;  for  on  the 
one  hand,  the  hauling  of  it  should  keep  pace  with  that 
of  the  life-line ;  on  the  other,  no  undue  strain  must  be 
allowed  to  come  on  it.  At  last  the  weird,  black  figure 
appears,  totters  up  the  ladder  and  waits  while  the  men 
lift  him  on  board  ;  then  off  comes  the  helmet,  and  then — 

258 


HOW  SPONGES  ARE  PROCURED 

but  we  all  know  what  the  first  breath  of  unimpeded  air 
is  after  we  have  been  confined  in  a  close  atmosphere ; 
multiply  the  pleasure  of  that  by  a  hundred.  But  use  is 
everything ;  in  a  few  moments  our  diver  will  be  off  to 
the  bottom  again. 

Dredging  for  sponges  is  probably  a  less-known  branch 
of  the  trade ;  it  forms  the  winter  industry  of  the  Greek 
fishermen  of  Asia  Minor  and  North  Africa, — winter, 
because  then  the  equinoctial  and  autumn  storms  have 
had  plenty  of  time  to  tear  up  the  seaweed  which  would 
otherwise  fill  up  the  dredge,  or  hamper  the  movement  of 
the  gear. 

The  dredge  is  worked  from  a  large  sailing-boat,  in  most 
cases  the  tow-line  being  fastened  to  the  bowsprit.  Gen- 
erally speaking  it  is  only  used  in  water  that  is  too  deep 
for  the  divers ;  but,  in  the  island  of  Syme — one  of  the 
chief  centres  of  the  sponge  industry — and  on  parts  of  the 
Syrian  coast  where  the  sponges  sometimes  lie  close  in  to 
shore,  it  is  shot  from  a  large  rowing-boat  and  hauled  in 
from  the  beach.  This  dredge  is  a  formidable-looking 
arrangement ;  imagine  an  Immense  packing-case  three 
feet  high,  and  about  eighteen  feet  square  ;  bigger  round, 
that  is  to  say,  than  a  room  of  average  size ;  open  at 
the  top,  and  having  a  large  net-bag  hanging  from  the 
bottom.  The  meshes  of  this  net  are  four  inches  square, 
and  are  made  of  camelVhair  cord  as  thick  as  a  man's 
finger. 

This  unwieldy  apparatus  is  thrown  overboard  on  a  good 
sponge-ground  and  towed  gently  along  as  if  it  were  a 
trawl,  the  boat  drifting  wherever  she  likes.  Like  a  trawl, 

259 


HOW  SPONGES  ARE  PROCURED 

too,  it  is  hauled  up,  two  or  four  bridles  connecting  the 
tow-line  with  the  frame.  As  the  sponges  are  taken  out, 
they  are  squeezed  dry  and  thrown  in  the  hold,  and  the 
dredge  is  dropped  overboard  again. 

It  will  easily  be  understood  that  such  an  awkward 
method  of  working  would  not  be  much  favoured  by  fisher- 
men who  are  lucky  enough  to  find  sponge  in  moderately 
shallow  water.  For  those  who  object  to  the  dredge  and 
who  do  not  care  to  dive,  there  is  still  the  harpoon ;  and 
this  is  the  favourite  tackle  with  many  of  the  Greek  fisher- 
men on  both  sides  of  the  Mediterranean  (for  the  sponge 
trade  of  North  Africa  is  mainly  in  Greek  hands). 

The  large  sailing  vessels  thus  engaged  take  with  them 
several  small  boats  from  which  the  harpooning  is  done ; 
two  or  three  men  to  a  boat.  The  harpoon  is  simply  a 
fork  with  a  very  long  handle,  to  which  an  additional 
handle  can,  if  necessary,  be  screwed.  Each  boat  carries 
the  spy-glass  of  which  mention  has  already  been  made — 
a  very  crude  yet  satisfactory  means  of  seeing  to  the 
bottom  and  discovering  the  lie  of  the  ground.  It  is 
sometimes  unkindly  described  as  a  bucket  with  a  glass 
bottom,  and  indeed  it  is  not  much  else,  being  a  zinc 
cylinder  about  eighteen  inches  high  and  big  enough  to 
admit  a  man's  head ;  with  a  circular  sheet  of  glass  let  in 
to  the  bottom  of  it.  When  such  an  instrument  is  pushed 
a  foot  or  so  below  the  surface  a  man  can  see  through  as 
much  as  thirty  fathoms  of  moderately  clear  water. 

As  soon  as  the  sponge  is  sighted,  the  digging  and 
poking  and  stabbing  begin,  and  it  is  surprising  what  very 
large  catches  skilled  men  can  make  in  this  manner. 

260 


HOW  SPONGES  ARE  PROCURED 

Whatever  may  be  the  means  chosen  for  obtaining  the 
sponge,  its  treatment  when  taken  ashore  is  pretty  much 
the  same.  It  is  first  rinsed  arid  squeezed  till  every  par- 
ticle of  gelatinous  animal  matter  has  been  got  rid  of; 
then  it  is  exposed  to  the  air  for  a  day  or  two,  after  which 
it  is  taken  back  to  the  water  and  thrown  into  an  enclosure 
made  of  planks  and  stakes,  and  left  to  clean  itself.  Then 
it  is  taken  out  again,  trodden  vigorously  by  bare-footed 
men  till  it  is  once  more  squeezed  as  dry  as  possible,  and 
finally  is  hung  up  to  dry  before  being  sent  on  to  the 
picking  and  sorting  warehouse.  These  sponges,  it  should 
be  remarked,  are  the  finer  ones,  used  for  bath  and  toilet ; 
the  cheap,  coarser  articles  used  for  horse  and  carriage- 
washing  come  from  the  American  grounds ;  but,  before 
we  discuss  those,  there  is  another  European  ground  which 
calls  for  mention. 

Along  the  east  side  of  the  Adriatic  Sea  sponges  are 
found  at  almost  all  depths,  and  the  fishery,  which  is 
carried  on  by  the  Dalmatians  and  Croats,  is  in  a  very 
flourishing  condition.  It  is  done  from  small  boats  and  by 
means  of  harpoons.  These  men  employ  a  similar  spy- 
glass to  that  of  the  Greeks,  and  they  facilitate  its  use  in 
a  very  ingenious,  if  simple,  manner.  Every  boat  carries  a 
small  supply  of  pebbles,  and,  when  the  look-out  man 
wishes  to  inspect  the  ground,  he  dips  four  or  five  of  these 
in  oil  and  tosses  them  one  by  one  in  a  curved  line  in  front 
of  the  boat.  Each  pebble,  as  it  sinks,  scatters  tiny  drops 
all  the  way  down,  which  help  to  clear  the  water,  thus 
affording  a  more  unobstructed  view  to  the  spy-glass. 

The  Dalmatians  and  others  have  latterly  taken  to 

261 


HOW  SPONGES  ARE  PROCURED 

breeding  sponge  on  scientific  lines,  which  merely  means 
that  they  avail  themselves  of  the  natural  reproductive 
instinct  of  the  animals  which  it  contains.  In  the  autumn 
the  seeds  or  gemmules  which  occur  in  the  interior  of  the 
sponge  body  begin  to  form  themselves,  and  gradually 
every  seed  develops  into  a  sponge  particle,  which  during 
the  following  summer  becomes  an  ovum ;  and  this,  on  be- 
coming fertilised,  as  often  as  not  separates  from  the  main 
body  of  the  sponge,  attaches  itself  to  some  rock  or  other 
object,  and,  little  by  little,  grows  into  a  separate  colony 
of  animals.  By  experiments,  scientists  have  proved  that 
a  small  bit  of  sponge  torn  from  the  main  bulk  will,  if 
circumstances  are  favourable  and  if  there  are  sufficient 
gemmules  contained  in  it,  quickly  increase  in  size  through 
the  breeding  of  its  occupants ;  and  now  the  rearing 
of  sponges  is  as  much  a  recognised  industry  as  oyster 
culture  is. 

From  the  coast  of  Florida  to  the  Bahamas  there 
stretches  a  long  and — from  a  seaman's  point  of  view — 
very  dangerous  chain  of  islands,  mostly  of  coral  formation, 
and  known  as  the  Florida  Keys.  Some  of  the  islands  are 
just  below  sea-level,  others  just  above ;  others  have  been 
slowly  worn  down  by  the  action  of  the  water  and  remain 
at  varying  heights  below  the  surface.  On  and  about  these 
reefs  it  was  accidentally  discovered  that  sponge  had  been 
breeding  very  freely,  probably  for  many  centuries  ;  and  so, 
during  the  last  sixty  years  the  horse-sponge  trade  has 
grown  up — mainly  on  the  Bahamas  side  of  the  reef;  and 
so  profitable  has  it  become  that  the  islanders  are  now  ex- 

262 


HOW  SPONGES  ARE  PROCURED 

porting  sponge  to  the  annual  value  of  nearly  a  hundred 
and  twenty  thousand  pounds.  The  beds  extend  over 
several  thousand  square  miles,  and  are,  in  all  reasonable 
probability,  inexhaustible. 

Here  sponge-diving  is  almost  unknown ;  what  need, 
when  in  many  cases  the  sponges  grow  so  close  to  the  sur- 
face that  it  looks  as  if  you  could  gather  them  with  your 
hand  ?  Instead,  the  fishermen  use  the  harpoon,  or  a 
hooked  form  of  it ;  a  three-pronged  rake,  we  might  better 
term  it.  Every  week  a  fleet  of  schooner-rigged  boats,  of 
any  size  up  to  twenty-five  tons,  sets  off  from  the  shores 
of  a  few  of  the  islands,  each  carrying  several  two-men 
dinghies  or  dories,  like  those  used  by  the  Newfoundland 
cod-fishers,  and  manned  largely  by  negroes.  While  the 
ships  lie  at  anchor  the  little  boats  pull  about  over  the 
reefs,  the  sponge-hooker  lying  over  either  stern  or  bows, 
and  snatching  at  everything  that  looks  promising. 

Hooking  here  requires  far  greater  care  and  skill  than  in 
the  Mediterranean,  for  everybody  knows  how  soft  horse- 
sponge  is,  and  how  easily  torn.  The  aim  is  to  slide  the 
rake  immediately  between  the  rock  and  the  root  of  the 
sponge,  and  so  wrench  it  bodily  off. 

At  the  end  of  the  day  the  dinghies  pull  back  to  their 
schooner,  and  the  sponges  are  stowed  away  on  board. 
After  a  week  of  good  catches  the  fleet  is  able  to  return 
and  land  the  cargo,  if  "  land "  may  be  allowed  to  mean 
bringing  the  sponges  in  to  shore  by  the  boat-load  and 
throwing  them  straight  into  the  "crawl,""  as  the  West 
Indians  call  the  staked  enclosure  such  as  has  been 
described.  Here  the  sponges  lie  a  few  feet  under  water, 

263 


HOW  SPONGES  ARE  PROCURED 

and  for  a  week  or  two  are  periodically  squeezed  and 
rinsed ;  then  they  are  thrown  on  the  beach  to  dry,  and 
are  packed  for  sending  away. 

The  people  of  Queensland  too  are  now  developing  a  not 
inconsiderable  trade  in  sponges. 


264 


CHAPTER   XXI 

DOLPHINS,  PORPOISES,  AND 
MANATEES 

The  dolphin— Misconceptions  about  it— Dolphin-catching  among  the 
Faroe  islanders — Fresh-water  dolphins  :  the  Inia  and  the  Soosoo — 
The  grampus — Porpoises— Fishermen's  hatred  of  them— The  nar- 
whal— Its  tusk— An  Iceland  narwhal-hunt— The  Greenlanders' 
method— The  Caaing  whale  and  the  beluga — Trapping  and  seining 
belugas — The  dugxmg  and  the  manatee — A  manatee-hunt. 

THE  cetacean  family  includes  many  water  monsters 
that,  though  scarcely  classifiable  under  the  head 
of  whales,  are  hunted  or  "  fished  "  for  in  much  the 
same  manner,  and  generally  for  similar  reasons ;  such  are 
the  dolphin,  the  porpoise,  and  the  like.     These  have  in 
common  with  the  whale  a  fish-like  form  and  a  horizontal 
tail,  and  like  them  belong  to  the  mammalia.     Let  us  take 
the  dolphin  first. 

One  very  interesting  point  in  connection  with  this 
animal  is  that  in  appearance  it  is  very  unlike  the  popular 
conception  of  it ;  and  for  this  there  is  a  good  reason. 
Classical  mythology  practically  raised  it  to  an  object  of 
worship.  Neptune,  said  the  Greeks,  turned  himself  into 
a  dolphin  on  a  certain  occasion ;  so  did  Apollo ;  there- 
fore temples  that  were  dedicated  to  either  deity  were 

265 


DOLPHINS,   PORPOISES 

more  often  than  not  ornamented  with  representations  of 
the  sacred  sea-beast.  Many  of  these  images  were  at  first 
very  roughly  executed;  sculpture  had  not  yet  reached 
the  high  perfection  which  it  subsequently  attained,  and 
probably  none  of  the  artists  had  ever  seen  a  dolphin  very 
near.  The  later  sculptors  were  too  loyal  to  the  work  of 
their  predecessors  as  well  as  too  much  bound  by  tradition 
to  attempt  to  alter  or  improve  on  the  generally  accepted 
idea  of  what  a  dolphin  ought  to  be,  and  so  century  after 
century  went  by,  still  leaving  the  people  under  the  im- 
pression that  it  was  a  sort  of  dog-headed  fish. 

So  far  from  its  head  being  round,  it  has  a  much  longer 
and  sharper  muzzle  than  the  porpoise,  and  has  been 
known  from  time  immemorial  among  the  French  fisher- 
men as  the  bee  cCoie  or  goose-bill.  Its  average  length 
is  a  little  over  seven  feet.  It  has  a  most  shark-like 
appetite,  and  will  not  only  gorge  itself  on  fish,  but  will 
make  a  meal  of  an  elderly,  or  wounded,  or  dying  brother ; 
and,  as  its  mouth  is  furnished  with  about  a  hundred 
and  eighty  long,  pointed  teeth,  it  is  well  equipped  for 
such  a  repast.  The  home  of  the  common  dolphin  is  the 
Mediterranean  and  the  North  Atlantic ;  but  varieties  are 
found  all  over  the  world,  the  largest  known  species  being 
the  grampus,  which  may  be  seen  anywhere  north  of  our 
own  shores. 

The  dolphin  has  blow-holes  or  spiracles ;  but,  unlike 
those  of  the  whale,  they  are  joined  together  so  as  to 
make  but  one  opening,  which  is  placed  a  little  above  the 
eyes.  In  colour  it  is  black,  gradually  shading  off*  to 
white  under  the  belly ;  in  addition  to  its  flippers  it  has 

266 


AND  MANATEES 

a  long  pointed  back-fin,  and  so  swift  are  its  movements 
that  it  is  sometimes  called  the  Sea  Arrow. 

In  days  gone  by,  sailors  and  fishermen  credited  the 
animal  with  all  the  ferocity  and  voracity  of  the  shark, 
and  told  weird  tales  of  shoals  of  them  pursuing  a  boat 
for  the  sake  of  a  meal  of  human  flesh,  making  wild  dashes 
and  jumps  to  seize  the  crew,  even  leaping  on  board  after 
their  prey,  and  being  deprived  of  it  only  after  a  battle  in 
which  axes  and  guns  figured. 

This  belief  has  died  hard,  for  the  reason,  I  suppose, 
that  "  a  lie  that  is  half  a  truth  "  is  harder  to  fight  than 
"  a  lie  that  is  all  a  lie."  For  the  dolphin  does  swim  after 
ships  and  boats,  and  he  does  jump  aboard  sometimes, 
though  not  with  the  intention  of  attacking  the  crew. 
He  is  an  exceedingly  astute  being,  and  has  discovered 
that  from  time  to  time  a  good  deal  of  waste  food 
and  rubbish  is  thrown  overboard,  and  that  this  attracts 
the  fish  in  great  quantities ;  fish  that  under  ordinary 
circumstances  would  elude  him  by  their  swift  dodging 
or  by  diving  into  the  mud;  therefore,  because  a  boat 
generally  means  a  meal,  he  will  follow  it  for  miles.  As 
to  his  jumping  on  board,  he  may  do  that  out  of  sheer 
playfulness,  or  by  accident,  when  springing  up  in  pursuit 
of  a  fish  that  has  leapt  into  the  air  in  order  to  escape 
him. 

His  extreme  fondness  for  the  flesh  of  the  various  flying- 
fish  is  well  known.  In  the  warmer  parts  of  the  Atlantic 
he  will  spend  his  entire  day  in  hunting  them ;  leaping  up 
after  them  and  sometimes  snapping  them  in  mid-air ; 
lying  in  wait  just  below  the  surface  at  a  spot  where  one 

267 


DOLPHINS,  PORPOISES 

is  likely  to  fall,  or  dogging  one  particular  fish  till  he  has 
thoroughly  tired  it  out.  In  leaping  or  springing  he  closely 
resembles  the  salmon,  curving  his  tail  round  as  far  as  he 
can,  and  then  "  letting  himself  go." 

The  special  hunting-ground  for  these  creatures  is  on 
the  east  coast  of  Stromo,  one  of  the  Faroe  Islands.  Here, 
from  July  to  December,  the  dolphins  come  into  shallow 
water;  you  may  almost  say  that  they  lie  about  on  the 
shore.  Usually  they  come  in  detachments  of  from  three 
to  four  hundred,  under  the  guidance  of  a  few  old  males. 
The  islanders  are  strangely  lethargic  over  their  fishing, 
considering  that  they  are  of  Norwegian  descent ;  they 
sadly  neglect  their  opportunities  with  the  cod  and  other 
fish,  and  few  of  them  will  pursue  the  dolphin  except  when 
the  work  is  thus  made  easy  for  them.  Then  bands  of 
men  armed  with  clubs,  spears,  or  axes  go  down  to  the 
beach  before  daylight,  and  lie  in  wait  behind  the  rocks 
till  dawn,  when  the  animals  begin  to  come  in  to  shore. 

At  a  signal  whistle,  every  one  springs  out  and  lays 
about  him  vigorously.  It  is  tame  work,  for  the  poor 
creatures  are  far  too  much  surprised  and  terrified  to  offer 
resistance,  and  those  that  cannot  flee  are  soon  killed. 
Then  the  women  and  children  come  down  and,  with  the 
men,  haul  the  carcasses  on  to  the  higher  ground  where 
they  cut  them  up.  The  "  train-oil "  from  them  is  taken 
away  by  the  steamers  that  call  periodically  at  Thorshavn. 
It  may  not  be  generally  known  that  there  are  two  or 
three  species  of  fresh-water  dolphins,  by  which  I  do  not, 
of  course,  mean  such  as  may  sometimes  swim  up  the 
rivers  from  the  sea  in  search  of  food,  or  for  other  reason, 

268 


DOLPHIN  HUNTING 

A  favourite  hunting-ground  for  dolphins  is  on  Stromo,  one  ot  the  Faroe  Islands. 
Here,  from  July  to  December,  they  come  into  shallow  water  or  lie  about  on  the  shore, 
and  bands  of  men  armed  with  axes  and  spears  lie  in  wait  for  them  behind  the  rocks. 


AND   MANATEES 

hut  those  which  live  wholly  in  fresh  water.  One  of  them, 
the  Inia,  inhabits  the  upper  waters  of  the  Amazon  and 
some  of  the  lakes  round  about;  its  length  varies  from 
seven  to  twelve  feet,  and  it  differs  little  from  the  common 
dolphin  except  in  having  a  longer  and  more  pointed 
snout.  The  Indians  and  Bolivians  pursue  it  for  the  sake 
of  its  flesh  and  its  valuable  oil.  Before  daybreak  a  small 
fleet  of  canoes  will  set  off  up  the  river  and,  hiding  under 
the  gloomy,  overhanging  trees,  wait  for  the  inia  to  come 
up  to  feed.  As  soon  as  one  of  them  appears,  two  or 
three  harpoons  are  launched  at  it,  for  only  by  swift  kill- 
ing can  the  men  hope  to  make  a  fairly  good  catch.  The 
animals  do  not  come  in  shoals ;  seldom  will  there  be  more 
than  a  dozen  in  one  place,  and  at  the  least  noise  these 
will  dive,  reappearing  nobody  knows  where ;  so  the 
fishermen  dare  not  use  guns.  All  the  harpoons  thrown  at 
one  animal  must  come  from  the  same  boat,  for  he  is  not 
averse  to  doing  a  little  towing,  and  though  if  he  found 
three  boat-loads  moored  to  him  he  could  not  do  them 
much  harm,  the  noise  he  would  make  would  alarm  the 
other  animals,  and  spoil  the  chances  of  the  remaining 
boats.  When  a  boat  has  killed  her  catch  she  paddles 
silently  and  rapidly  away,  towing  the  inia  close  behind, 
a  man  being  stationed  in  the  stern  with  a  long  lance  to 
keep  off  the  alligators  that  might  try  for  a  mouthful  of 
the  carcass. 

A  very  similar  cetacean  of  the  same  size,  called  the 
Soosoo,  is  found  in  the  Ganges,  where  it  affords  amusement 
to  British  sportsmen,  and  profit  to  such  of  the  Hindus  as 
take  the  trouble  to  hunt  it. 

269 


DOLPHINS,   PORPOISES 

The  giant  of  the  delphinidae,  the  grampus  or  gladiator 
dolphin,  reaches  a  length  of  twenty  and  even  five-and- 
twenty  feet ;  is  one  of  the  most  voracious  of  the  tribe,  and 
is  found  in  various  of  the  northern  seas,  travelling  in 
quite  small  herds.  Such  a  herd  will  collect  round  a 
whale,  and  between  them  kill  and  eat  it.  Sometimes  they 
vary  their  tactics ;  surround  the  whale,  hustle  and  bully 
it,  drive  it  backwards  and  forwards  for  a  whole  day  or 
more  till  it  is  dead  beat,  and  then,  between  them,  tear  out 
and  devour  its  tongue.  The  strength  of  the  grampus  is 
proverbial,  and  when  a  harpoon  is  fixed  in  it,  it  will  make 
no  difficulty  of  towing  a  boat-load  of  men  for  several 
miles  before  it  is  tired  out.  Many  years  ago  a  small 
grampus  was  seen  in  the  Thames  near  Blackwall.  Four 
men  rowed  after  it  and  pierced  it  with  three  harpoons, 
and  just  when  they  thought  their  capture  safe  and  their 
task  finished,  the  powerful  young  beast  started  off  full- 
speed  up  the  river  against  a  tide  that  was  running  eight 
miles  an  hour.  After  a  couple  of  miles  it  dived,  and  then 
came  to  a  dead  stop,  seemingly  exhausted,  and  the  oars- 
men pulled  triumphantly  towards  it,  expecting  to  find  it 
dead ;  but,  as  they  came  within  about  a  fathom  of  it,  the 
grampus  suddenly  shot  away  again,  scarcely  seeming  to 
notice  the  pull  of  the  boat  when  the  rope  had  run  taut 
again,  and  swam  beyond  Deptford — another  three  miles — 
before  it  would  own  itself  conquered.  A  full-grown 
grampus  would  probably  have  towed  thrice  the  number  of 
men  to  Twickenham,  and  then  been  prepared  to  run  them 
back  again  to  Tilbury  or  Southend. 

Probably  most  readers  have  seen  porpoises,  if  only  at  a 

270 


AND   MANATEES 

distance,  for  big  shoals  of  them  frequently  put  in  an 
appearance  close  to  the  shore :  Hunstanton  and  the  neigh- 
bourhood is  a  good  place  to  see  them.  These  animals 
bring  out,  as  strongly  as  anything,  the  fisherman's  rooted 
belief  in  the  Infernal  Powers  as  a  creative  force.  "  The 
Almighty  never  could  ha'  made  sich  varmints  as  them," 
observed  a  really  saintly  old  salmon-fisher  who  was  giving 
me  an  account  of  their  depredations  among  the  Nor- 
wegian salmon.  And  indeed  the  porpoise's  appetite  for 
these  fish  is  so  insatiable  that  it  will  pursue  them  up  the 
rivers.  For  a  small  shoal  to  take  a  trip  up  the  Seine  as 
far  as  Rouen  is  a  mere  nothing ;  it  is  a  matter  of  history 
that  they  have  been  seen  even  beyond  Paris.  Nor  is  it 
only  the  salmon  that  appeals  to  their  greed.  Ask  the 
herring  and  mackerel  fleets  their  opinion  anent  the  por- 
poise. It  breaks  up  the  shoals,  rushes  like  a  bull  at  a 
gate  against  a  fleet  of  herring-nets,  with  disastrous  results 
to  the  owners,  and  harries  the  mackerel  literally  to  death. 
It  is  the  smallest  of  the  cetacean  tribe ;  one  of  them 
that  measured  five  feet  from  tip  to  tail  would  be  of 
average  size.  It  has  a  dolphin-like  body,  though  with 
rounder  muzzle  and  head.  A  shoal  of  porpoises  is  like  an 
immense  black  shiny  patch  on  the  water;  so  closely  do 
they  crowd  together  and  in  such  vast  numbers,  that  it  is 
difficult  to  understand  how  they  can  move  at  all.  They 
exhibit  all  the  love  of  playing  and  gambolling  that  is 
seen  among  the  dolphins,  and  as  much  curiosity  as  a  fish 
or  an  Arab ;  hence  perhaps  some  of  the  gruesome  nurse- 
maid tales  about  the  "sea-horses"  that  swim  after  and 
devour  the  unwary  bather. 

271 


DOLPHINS,   PORPOISES 

Though  the  animal  is  so  valuable,  there  is  little  system- 
atic porpoise-hunting  nowadays  except  among  the  Lapps 
and  Greenlanders.  If  a  whaleboat  should  happen  to  fall 
in  with  a  shoal,  it  will  harpoon  as  many  of  them  as  it  can 
without  going  out  of  its  way,  and  the  Norwegian  fisher- 
men will  shoot  or  spear  them  in  the  same  spirit  in  which 
a  gamekeeper  sends  a  charge  of  shot  after  a  stray  dog  or 
a  weasel.  But  in  the  Middle  Ages  porpoise-hunting  was  a 
fashionable  sport  in  England  and  France :  the  meat  was 
highly  esteemed,  and  in  Henry  VIIFs  time  it  was  even  a 
royal  dish.  The  Greenlanders  still  eat  and  enjoy  it ; 
they  hunt  it  with  light  harpoons,  and  the  catches  are 
towed  ashore  in  great  quantities. 

The  oil,  which  the  Greenland  fishers  export  to  Central 
Europe,  is  obtained  from  the  boiling  down  of  the  blubber, 
which,  as  in  the  whale,  lies  immediately  below  the  skin. 
It  is  firmer  than  that  of  the  whale,  and  usually  about  an 
inch  deep,  and  the  oil  from  it  requires  less  treatment  in 
the  clarifying  of  it  than  any  other  form  of  cetacean  fat. 
The  hide  when  tanned  is  exceedingly  tough,  and  is  used 
largely  in  making  hoods  for  carriages. 

The  narwhal,  or  sea-unicorn  as  it  is  often  called,  has  a 
dolphin's  body,  but  its  head  is  shaped  more  like  that  of  a 
seal ;  the  blow-holes,  as  in  the  dolphin,  have  but  one  out- 
let. The  chief  feature  which  distinguishes  it  from  all  the 
other  cetacea  is  its  wonderful  sword-like  tusk,  which  in 
reality  is  an  elongated  tooth,  sometimes  more  than  half  as 
long  as  its  body  (the  tusk  of  the  female  is  seldom  more 
than  ten  inches  long).  Sea-unicorn,  by  the  way,  is  rather 
a  misleading  nickname,  for  very  frequently  the  animal 

272 


AND   MANATEES 

has  two  of  these  ivory  prolongations,  the  incisor  tooth  of 
the  lower  jaw  being  lengthened  out  so  as  to  rival  that 
of  the  upper.  The  animal  may  be  found  anywhere  be- 
tween the  shores  of  Iceland  and  Greenland. 

The  terrific  power  of  the  formidable  weapon  with 
which  it  is  provided  may  be  gauged  from  the  fact  that 
the  narwhal  on  seeing  a  ship  will  make  a  dash  at  it, 
thinking  it  to  be  some  species  of  whale,  and,  if  the  vessel 
be  of  wood,  will  drive  its  tusk  right  through  her  side  or 
stern.  The  result  to  the  narwhal  is  not  pleasant ;  if  it 
should  succeed  in  piercing  the  side  of  the  ship,  the  tusk 
will  be  snapped  off  by  the  force  of  her  motion ;  if  the 
stern,  the  animal  will  become  as  much  a  fixture  as  a  nail 
driven  into  a  fence,  and  will  be  towed  along  and  starved 
to  death.  From  this  it  may  be  imagined  how  much 
chance  a  whale  stands  against  a  shoal  of  sea-unicorns. 
Yet,  in  spite  of  their  fierceness,  they  play  together  as 
merrily  as  dolphins. 

The  Icelanders  use  large,  heavy  rowing-boats  in  pursu- 
ing the  narwhal.  "  Pursuing  "  is  scarcely  the  right  word 
in  this  case,  because  a  boat  might  chase  a  narwhal  till 
doomsday  and  never  come  up  with  it,  for  when  the  animal 
is  alone  its  pace  is  something  like  that  of  a  salmon.  If, 
however,  he  should  meet  a  friend,  though  fifty  boats  were 
after  him  he  would  still  want  to  stop  and  fence  with  his 
tusk  and  play  about  for  a  while. 

But  as  a  rule  they  swim  in  enormous  shoals,  making 

but  little  progress,  fishing  or  playing  in  long  irregular 

lines  about  the  Iceland  fjords.     The  fleet  of  boats — each 

with  a  crew  of  about  five — lie  in  hiding  among  the  rocks, 

s  273 


DOLPHINS,   PORPOISES 

waiting  for  a  shoal  to  come  within  reasonable  distance  of 
the  shore ;  and  as  soon  as  the  long  straggling  lines  are 
close  enough,  the  boats  dash  from  their  hiding-place  and 
glide  swiftly  and  silently  between  the  rows. 

Then  all  in  a  moment  there  is  confusion  and  panic 
among  the  shoal ;  for  narwhals  are  only  courageous  against 
a  passive  foe,  or  one  of  their  own  kind ;  and  as  the  long 
oar-blades  are  whisked  sharply  out  of  the  water  and 
everything  is  made  clear  for  action,  they  fall  back  one 
upon  another,  make  one  futile  attempt  at  flight,  and  then 
content  themselves  with  huddling  together  and  spouting 
or  groaning.  In  this  position  they  are  powerless  to  defend 
themselves,  even  if  they  would,  for  the  long  tusks  have 
become  hopelessly  mixed ;  sometimes  half  a  dozen  will  be 
thrust  together  like  so  much  trellis-work,  and  not  one  of 
the  owners  can  stir.  Perhaps  one  of  the  more  daring  of 
the  males  will  make  a  feeble  dash  at  the  boat,  but  there 
is  always  a  fisherman  ready  to  receive  him. 

The  fishing  tackle  is  a  pole,  eight  or  ten  feet  long,  with 
either  an  ordinary  whale-harpoon  head  fitted  to  it  or  else 
a  three-tined  fork  with  barbed  points.  These  the  sturdy 
boatmen  work  untiringly,  stabbing  on  all  sides  as  far  as 
they  can  reach,  pitchforking  the  smaller  carcasses  on 
board  bodily,  and  leaving  the  others  to  take  care  of  them- 
selves till  they  can  be  roped  up  together  and  towed  ashore. 

Although  they  see  their  brethren  being  butchered  on 
all  sides  of  them,  the  narwhals  still  make  no  attempt  at 
escape ;  some  few  perhaps  will  dive,  but  when  they  want 
breath  they  generally  seem  to  come  up  again  in  the  midst 
of  one  of  the  lines  of  struggling  animals. 

274 


AND   MANATEES 

The  work  is  often  lucrative  enough ;  but,  as  is  always 
the  case  with  the  more  profitable  forms  of  fishing,  very 
risky  and  uncertain.  Sometimes,  in  the  very  heat  of  the 
slaughter,  one  of  the  men  will  discover  that  the  boat  is 
leaking ;  it  has  been  punctured  by  one  of  the  ivory  swords 
round  it,  which,  driven  accidentally  and  with  but  little 
force  against  the  timbers,  has  succeeded  in  making  a  hole 
but  not  in  staying  there  to  stop  it  up.  Hastily  the  few 
carcasses  taken  on  board  are  pushed  out  of  the  way  and 
attempts  made  at  checking  the  leak.  This  however  is 
idle,  for,  by  the  time  the  men  have  discovered  and  stopped 
one  hole,  they  have  realised  that  the  water  is  still  coming 
in  from  other  holes  and  that  the  boat  must  now  surely 
sink.  With  their  heavy  nailed  boots,  and  their  already 
sodden  woollen  leggings,  swimming  will  be  impossible ; 
and  unless  another  boat  can  get  at  the  sinking  crew,  there 
is  not  much  hope  for  them.  And  a  boat  may  be  ever  so 
near,  yet  powerless  to  help ;  for  the  very  thickness  of  the 
shoal,  which  under  ordinary  circumstances  would  mean 
wealth  to  the  fishermen,  is  now  a  horrible  obstacle, 
effectually  preventing  the  progress  of  another  boat 
towards  the  unfortunates.  Cases  have  been  known  of 
a  crew  being  drowned  or  gored  to  death  by  the  terrified 
narwhals  while  another  boat  was  within  a  few  fathoms  of 
them. 

The  modern  Icelanders  have  ceased  to  regard  the  tusks 
as  merely  useful  as  arrows,  tent-poles,  and  charms ;  instead 
they  export  them,  and  get  a  very  high  price  for  them ; 
for  narwhal  ivory  is  harder,  and  will  bear  a  higher  polish, 
than  even  that  obtained  from  the  elephant.  All  kinds  of 

275 


DOLPHINS,  PORPOISES 

superstitions  circled  round  this  tooth  or  tusk  in  ancient 
and  mediaeval  days,  the  chief  among  them  being  that  it 
was  an  antidote  against  all  poisons.  Even  as  far  down  as 
the  sixteenth  century  we  find  Charles  IX  of  France  be- 
lieving that  a  fragment  of  the  tooth  put  into  his  wine- 
cup  would  counteract  the  effect  of  any  poison  that  an 
enemy  might  have  placed  there.  Later  all  sorts  of 
squabbles  arose  among  naturalists  as  to  the  use  that  the 
tusk  is  to  the  animal ;  some  still  maintain  that  it  is 
employed  solely  in  burrowing  for  molluscs  which,  with 
skate,  cod,  and  squid,  are  its  food ;  and  that  its  having 
been  found  in  a  dead  whale  or  a  ship's  timbers  is  pure 
accident. 

The  Icelanders  strip  off  the  hide  and  employ  it  in 
various  ways,  and  export  the  oil  from  the  fat ;  this  is 
said  to  be  of  better  quality  than  that  from  whale- 
blubber.  But  they  do  not  eat  the  flesh.  The  word 
"nar"  in  Icelandic  signifies  a  corpse;  and  the  natives 
argue  that  an  animal  does  not  get  called  "  corpse- whale  " 
for  nothing ;  and  they  abstain.  In  that  respect  they  are  a 
good  deal  more  particular  than  some  more  civilised  folk 
who  will  enjoy  crabs  and  eels  which  undoubtedly  have  a 
partiality  for  the  form  of  diet  which  the  narwhal  is  un- 
justly accused  of  relishing. 

As  the  weather  gets  warmer  the  shoals  swim  north- 
wards to  the  Greenland  coast,  sometimes  in  the  straggling 
files  already  described,  sometimes  "  shoulder  to  shoulder," 
in  one  line  a  couple  of  miles  long.  They  stay  here  till 
driven  southwards  by  scarcity  of  food,  but  often  a  small 
shoal  will  be  cut  off  by  the  sudden*  winter  and  frozen  up. 

276 


AND  MANATEES 

Then  a  special  use  of  the  long  tusk  is  made  apparent ;  as 
the  animals  cannot  remain  under  water  altogether,  they 
charge  upwards  at  the  ice,  and  gradually  succeed  in 
breaking  open  a  breathing-hole,  which  they  keep  free 
from  the  continually  re-forming  ice.  It  is  at  these  holes 
that  the  Greenlanders  find  their  narwhal  fishing-grounds ; 
sometimes  they  are  numerous,  sometimes  there  will  be 
only  one  in  a  space  of  several  square  miles. 

The  fishermen  collect  in  great  numbers  round  the  hole, 
every  one  armed  with  either  a  gun  or  a  three-pronged 
fork,  and  before  they  have  been  waiting  long  the  suffocat- 
ing animals  appear  in  hundreds.  The  "  catching "  is  a 
wholesale  massacre ;  the  men  with  the  guns  fire  as  fast 
as  they  can,  while  the  harpooners  drive  their  weapons 
into  the  dead  or  dying  bodies  and  pitchfork  them  into 
heaps  on  the  ice. 

The  Greenland  men  have  none  of  the  Icelanders' 
scruples  about  eating  the  narwhal ;  in  fact,  they  regard 
the  flesh  as  a  great  delicacy.  They  cut  up  the 
carcass  into  joints,  which  they  smoke  as  we  should 
smoke  bacon. 

Before  we  proceed  to  the  vegetable-eating  delphinidse, 
there  are  two  other  animals  we  must  notice — the  Caaing 
Whale  and  the  Beluga,  or  white  whale,  both  of  them 
ardently  pursued  by  the  northern  fishermen.  The  caaing, 
which  the  Scotch  fishers  call  the  black  whale,  used  invari- 
ably to  be  classed  by  naturalists  with  the  dolphins,  but  it 
is  now  generally  regarded  as  a  separate  cetacean  species. 
Sailors  often  call  it  the  howling-whale  and  the  pilot-fish, 
though  why  the  latter  it  is  difficult  to  say,  unless  on 

277 


DOLPHINS,   PORPOISES 

account  of  its  collecting,  dolphin  fashion,  and  swimming 
in  shoals  after  the  ships.  In  shape  it  is  more  like  a  very 
long  and  very  fat  porpoise  than  anything  else ;  it  is  about 
the  same  length  as  the  grampus,  but  the  thickest  part  of 
its  body  sometimes  measures  eleven  feet  through,  so  that 
the  animal  would  touch  the  ends,  sides,  ceiling,  and  floor 
of  a  fairly  long  corridor.  Its  colour  is  glossy  black, 
with  a  white  streak  running  the  whole  length  of  its  under 
side. 

The  Orkney  whalers  make  good  profit  of  this  animal, 
for  it  is  easily  taken,  and  relatively  almost  as  valuable  as 
the  whale  itself.  It  is  no  friend  to  the  Scotch  cod- 
fishers,  for  it  eats  the  catch  and  sometimes  runs  off  with 
the  tackle.  The  pursuit  and  destruction  of  it  must 
usually  be  regarded  more  as  a  branch  of  other  sea  trades 
than  as  a  separate  fishery. 

This  is  not  so  with  the  "  Greenlander's  Whale,"  as  the 
beluga  is  sometimes  styled.  This  animal  seems  to  be  a 
sort  of  link  between  the  caaing  and  the  narwhal,  and  its 
home  is  nearly  the  same  as  that  of  the  former ;  that  is  to 
say  it  belongs  to  the  Greenland  coast,  but  travels  as  far 
south  as  the  Faroe  Islands,  and  in  America  is  found  as 
low  down  as  Newfoundland.  Very  occasionally  it  comes 
down  to  our  own  coasts ;  about  sixty  years  ago  one  of 
them  was  captured  some  distance  up  the  Medway,  and  one 
was  killed  on  the  Scotch  coast  in  1815. 

In  length  it  is  seldom  more  than  fifteen  feet ;  it  has  a 
broad,  blunt  head  and  no  tusk,  though  it  has  about 
seventeen  front  teeth,  which  generally  fall  out  as  the 
beluga  passes  middle  life.  Its  skin  is  quite  white, 

278 


AND   MANATEES 

and  so  soft  that  only  a  well-embedded  harpoon  will 
retain  its  position.  Yet,  strangely  enough,  this  skin, 
so  soft  while  fresh,  makes  the  toughest  of  leather 
when  tanned. 

The  Greenlanders  kill  thousands  of  belugas  every 
summer,  and  in  winter  the  animals  are  caught  in  the  nar- 
whal ice-holes,  at  least  half  a  dozen  of  them  finding  their 
way  to  every  hole.  They  are  either  very  stupid  or  else 
very  timid  and  gentle,  for  they  flee  at  lightning  speed  if 
they  know  themselves  to  be  pursued ;  they  seldom  offer 
any  resistance  to  the  harpooners,  and  are  rarely  seen 
attempting  to  attack  any  other  animal,  although,  like  the 
caaing,  they  have  no  objection  to  snapping  up  a  hooked 
cod-fish  or  ling.  Shoals  of  them  are  seldom  seen  near  the 
coast,  generally  they  remain  in  deep  water  or  hang  about 
the  entries  of  the  fjords  in  wait  for  the  salmon.  The 
little  ones  and  the  females  are,  as  a  rule,  placed  in  the 
middle  of  the  shoal.  The  young  are  born  black,  then 
become  pink  and  eventually  white.  The  name  Sea- 
canaries  has  often  been  given  to  them  because  when  they 
are  under  water  their  bellowing  is  deadened  to  a  peculiar 
bird-like  whistle. 

The  beluga  enjoys  the  distinction  of  being  the  only 
cetacean  for  which  nets  are  set.  At  the  mouths  of 
the  fjords  a  kind  of  salmon-trap  on  a  large  scale  is 
moored,  and  a  day  seldom  passes  without  several  being 
caught.  The  Danish  Greenlanders  go  farther  than  this 
and  make  some  very  respectable  catches  with  the  seine. 
Its  meshes  are  made  of  fine  rope,  each  opening  five  or  six 
inches  square,  and  the  net  is  shot  either  from  a  couple  of 

279 


DOLPHINS,   PORPOISES 

cutters  or  from  lugger-rigged  rowing  boats.  The  oil  is 
sent  south  by  Danish  steamers,  and  the  flesh  is  smoked  for 
eating,  like  that  of  the  narwhal. 

Some  of  the  cetacea  do  not  live  in  the  sea  altogether, 
and  some  are  vegetarians.  There  is  a  class  which  spends 
much  of  its  time  in  the  rivers  and  is  known  by  the  generic 
name  manatidcc,  the  two  best-known  specimens  of  which 
are  the  dugong  and  the  manatee ;  one  or  two  species  of 
this  class  have  become  extinct  during  the  last  couple  of 
hundred  years — notably  the  Rhytina,  on  which  Behring's 
shipwrecked  crew  lived  for  eleven  months  in  their  island 
solitude,  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago. 

The  dugong  fishery  is,  among  civilised  people,  quite  a 
modern  industry,  that  has  arisen  on  account  of  the 
animal's  oil,  which,  it  was  discovered  some  years  ago, 
contains  all  the  strengthening  medicinal  properties  of 
cod-liver  oil.  Its  home  is  round  Polynesia,  the  East 
Indies,  and  Ceylon,  and  boat-loads  of  harpooned  carcasses 
are  taken  ashore  by  Dutch  and  Australian  fishermen. 
Many  are  killed  in  the  river  mouths  and  even  on  the  sea- 
shore, for  the  flippers  of  the  manatidae  enable  the  animals 
to  drag  themselves  along  the  ground. 

All  these  creatures  are  singularly  mild  and  gentle  in 
their  disposition,  and  maternal  affection  is  even  more 
strongly  shown  by  them  than  by  other  cetaceans.  There- 
fore the  young  ones  are  always  aimed  at  by  the 
harpooners,  and  the  mothers,  instantly  interposing 
themselves  between  the  young  and  the  enemy,  are  easily 
speared.  A  brutal  practice  obtains  among  the  Malay 

280 


AND   MANATEES 

fishermen  of  harpooning  a  couple  of  baby  dugongs  and 
towing  them  along  as  a  decoy  ;  the  mothers  follow  and 
become  easy  game.  This  may  be  good  business  but  it 
"  isn't  cricket." 

The  manatees,  or  sea-cows,  or  femmes  poissons^  show 
just  the  same  tenderness  and,  in  addition,  a  peculiar 
clannishness.  In  great  herds  they  often  leave  the  sea  and 
enter  the  rivers  of  Central  and  South  America ;  a  few  old 
males  go  first,  then  the  bulk  of  the  herd,  wives  and 
children  in  the  middle.  If  a  harpoon  should  suddenly 
dart  out  on  them,  the  males  try  to  cover  the  retreat  of 
the  females,  and  if  one  of  either  sex  be  harpooned  the 
rest  will  gather  round  the  wounded  animal  and  try  to  set 
it  free. 

But  the  greater  part  of  the  manatee-hunting  is  done 
higher  up  the  rivers.  Here  the  animals  may  be  seen 
lying  about  on  the  weedy,  muddy  banks,  feeding  as  peace- 
fully as  cows ;  yet  the  Indian  fishermen  know  that  this  is 
no  place  to  take  them,  for  at  the  first  unnatural  sound  or 
unusual  sight  they  disappear.  The  harpooner  must  there- 
fore decide  upon  one  of  three  courses ;  either  hiding  in 
the  weeds  on  the  bank,  at  the  risk  of  being  eaten  by 
alligators,  and  waiting  for  the  chance  of  the  manatee's 
coming  up  to  breathe  ;  or  walking  boldly  along  the  bank 
and  launching  a  spear  at  the  "  cow  "  when  it  is  sleeping  ; 
or  thirdly,  setting  off  before  daylight  in  a  canoe  and 
catching  the  animals  off  their  guard  when  they  come  up 
unsuspectingly  to  feed  at  dawn.  The  second  method  is 
more  satisfactory  and  less  precarious  than  it  sounds ;  for 
the  manatee  must  sleep  sometimes,  and  does  not  neces- 

281 


DOLPHINS,  PORPOISES 

sarily  choose  the  night  for  the  purpose.  When  sleeping 
he  always  floats  along  with  the  current,  his  muzzle  above 
water,  and  so  is  an  easy  target  for  the  skilled  harpoon- 
thrower.  But  by  such  means  these  valuable  creatures  are 
only  caught  one  at  a  time,  and  the  aim  of  the  hunters  is 
to  make  a  "  bag " ;  therefore  they  prefer  to  surprise  a 
whole  herd. 

Manatee-hunting  is  just  the  reverse  of  inia-harpooning ; 
the  latter,  we  have  seen,  must  be  done  suddenly  and 
swiftly,  before  the  capture  of  one  of  the  animals  has 
frightened  the  rest  away;  whereas  if  one  manatee  of  a 
herd  be  struck,  the  rest  appear  in  a  moment.  As  soon 
as  the  blood  of  one  of  them  begins  to  flow,  the  others  take 
it  as  a  signal  that  one  of  their  kinsfolk  is  in  trouble,  and 
flock  round  him,  affording  one  of  the  most  pathetic  sights 
in  nature ;  all  the  herd  moaning  and  crying,  some  trying 
to  drag  out  the  harpoon,  others  seizing  the  line  in  their 
teeth  and  endeavouring  to  bite  it  through.  On  such  an 
occasion  the  whole  herd  is  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  the 
hunters,  for  the  un wounded  animals  may  be  relied  upon 
not  to  leave  their  brothers  to  their  fate. 

The  flesh  is  rich  and  tasty ;  some  people  say  it  re- 
sembles beef,  others  that  they  would  not  know  it  from 
pork.  An  important  characteristic  is  that  it  will  keep 
firm  and  sweet  for  a  long  while  ;  no  small  advantage  when 
we  bear  in  mind  that  the  manatee's  favourite  home  is 
round  about  the  equator.  The  leather  of  the  tanned 
hide  is  exceedingly  durable,  and  is  now  becoming  costly  in 
Europe. 

The  Indian  harpooners  still  believe  many  of  the  quaint 

282 


AND   MANATEES 

stories  about  this  creature,  which  their  fathers  told  to  the 
early  sixteenth-century  European  explorers ;  especially 
the  superstition  that  if  it  finds  a  corpse  it  piously  watches 
over  it  till  someone  comes  to  bury  it,  or  till  it  sinks  in 
the  water. 


283 


CHAFPER  XXII 
TURTLES  AND  TURTLE-CATCHING 

Turtles  and  tortoises — The  terrapin  or  snapper— Catching  turtles  with 
fish— The  remora — Shooting  with  tethered  arrows — Turtle-diving 
—Tortoise-shell— A  horrible  method  of  obtaining  it— The  hawk's- 
bill— Its  shell— Seining  for  turtles  in  South  America— The  Gala- 
pagos tortoise— The  green  turtle — Methods  of  taking  him. 

ALTHOUGH  turtles  and  tortoises  cannot  be  called 
fish,  some  account  of  the  catching  of  them  must 
find  a  place  in  a  book  on  fisheries,  unless  the  word 
is  taken  in  its  narrowest  sense. 

We  have  seen  that  when  men  go  fishing  it  is  either  to 
provide  food  for  themselves  and  others,  or  else  to  procure 
some  substance  which,  though  not  eatable,  is  valuable  as 
an  article  of  commerce.  Sometimes  the  prey  they  seek 
fulfils  both  purposes,  as  in  the  case  of  the  sturgeon ;  and 
just  as  from  that  fish  the  fisherman  gets  food  plus  isin- 
glass, so  from  the  turtle  he  gets  food  plus  tortoise-shell. 
Of  the  tortoise  proper  we  shall  not  have  much  to  say, 
except  in  the  case  of  a  larger  variety ;  for,  in  addition  to 
its  generally  being  a  land  animal,  its  shell  is  seldom  of 
great  value,  and  only  the  flesh  of  special  kinds  is  eaten. 
It  was  one  of  the  "  unclean  "  animals  which  Moses  forbade 
the  Israelites  to  eat,  and  judging  by  the  smaller  species, 
one  can  conceive  that  they  were  seldom  tempted  to  break 

284 


TURTLES  AND  TURTLE-CATCHING 

the  levitical  law  in  this  respect;  for  where  the  meat  of 
these  creatures  is  concerned,  there  is  no  medium  between 
excellent  and  disgusting. 

It  is  not  easy  to  draw  a  sharp  dividing  line  between 
turtles  and  tortoises,  for  their  characteristics  frequently 
overlap ;  one  cannot  say  that  the  tortoise  belongs  to  the 
land,  and  the  turtle  to  the  water,  for  there  are  land  turtles 
and  water  tortoises,  just  as  there  are  inedible  turtles  and 
edible  tortoises.  A  generally  accepted  method  of  classifi- 
cation is  to  divide  the  genus  testudinata,  to  which  both 
belong,  into  four  species  :  marine,  land,  river,  and  marsh  ; 
but  for  the  present  purpose  it  will  be  sufficient  to  say  that 
turtles  have  their  limbs  lengthened  and  curved  backwards 
so  as  to  serve  as  fins  or  flippers  which  they  can  use  when 
swimming,  whereas  tortoises  have  not  this  feature,  and 
though  some  can  live  in  the  water  they  are  generally 
stationary  while  there,  making  little  pretence  at  doing 
anything  but  drinking. 

The  characteristics  which  are  common  to  both  are  the 
short,  puffy  body  encased  in  a  shell  which  is  made  up  of 
two  shields,  an  upper  and  a  lower,  cemented  together  at 
their  margins.  The  shell  is  really  an  orderly  arrange- 
ment of  hard  plates  covering  everything  but  the  head, 
tail,  and  legs  which  usually  are  encased  in  a  tough,  scaly 
skin.  Both  animals  breathe  by  means  of  lungs.  Those 
that  pass  their  lives  on  land  live  entirely  on  vegetable 
diet,  while  the  others  frequently  make  the  smaller  molluscs 
an  article  of  their  food.  It  is  said  that  both  can  go  for 
months  without  nourishment  of  any  sort. 

The  marine  turtles  are  to  be  found  anywhere  in  the 

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TURTLES  AND  TURTLE-CATCHING 

tropical  and  sub-tropical  regions,  and  sometimes  even  in 
colder  latitudes.  Their  weight  and  size  are  very  variable  ; 
some  of  them  turn  the  scale  at  seven  hundredweight. 
The  age  which  they  reach  is  still  a  much-disputed  point ; 
but  satisfactory  proof  has  been  given  that  some  have  lived 
for  eighty  years. 

Generally  speaking  the  turtle  is  quiet  and  inoffensive  ; 
too  well  protected  by  Nature  for  it  to  have  many  enemies, 
and  too  stupid  and  sluggish  to  offer  violence.  There  is  an 
exception  where  the  alligator-terrapin  is  concerned ;  this, 
known  also  as  the  snapper,  is  a  fresh-water  turtle  found  in 
the  pools  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  in  certain 
parts  of  South  America.  It  has  a  tail  like  that  of  the 
crocodile,  and  is  an  implacable  opponent  of  all  other 
reptiles,  spending  half  its  time  in  slaughtering  young 
alligators.  More  power  to  that  turtle!  Unluckily  it  is 
not  only  one  of  the  eatable  sort,  but  its  flesh  is  more 
highly  prized  for  the  table  than  that  of  any  other  of  its 
kind;  and  therefore  it  is  hunted  down  without  mercy, 
thus  benefiting  the  few,  when,  if  left  alone,  it  would  be 
an  advantage  to  the  many. 

The  smaller  terrapins,  too,  the  red-bellied  and  the 
yellow-bellied,  caught  respectively  in  Virginia  and  Florida, 
are  also  much  valued  as  delicacies,  as  is  also  the  salt- 
water terrapin  of  Florida  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Large 
fresh-water  turtles,  three  feet  long,  are  taken  from  the 
Ganges,  Yang-tse-Kiang,  Nile,  and  other  great  rivers,  and 
are  largely  eaten  by  the  natives. 

How  to  catch  and  kill  animals  so  well  shielded  natur- 
ally, is  a  problem  which  both  savage  and  civilised  hunters 

286 


TURTLES  AND  TURTLE-CATCHING 

have  tried  every  means  of  solving.  A  bullet  is  effective, 
if  of  the  right  sort  and  fired  at  the  right  spot ;  and  many 
Englishmen  who  have  tried  turtle-shooting  in  the  Indian 
Ocean  or  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  speak  highly  of  the  sport. 
But  men  killed  turtles  long  before  guns  were  heard  of. 
How? 

In  his  progress  towards  civilisation  man  adapts  quite  as 
often  as  he  invents;  and  just  as  the  fisherman  made  use  of 
the  wind  as  a  means  of  propulsion  for  his  boat,  centuries 
before  engine-building  was  ever  thought  of,  so  he  pressed 
the  cormorant  or  the  gull  or  other  animals  into  his 
service,  often  before  more  artificial  means  had  occurred 
to  him.  Some  of  these  "  adaptations,"  as  we  know,  survive 
to  this  day,  and  among  them  the  using  of  a  fish  as  a 
turtle-catcher.  There  is  a  curious  little  creature  called 
the  remora  or  sucking-fish,  found  in  the  Mediterranean, 
the  tropics,  and  sometimes  as  far  north  as  our  own  coast. 
Its  special  characteristic  is  an  elongated  disc  which  covers 
its  head  and  extends  over  part  of  its  body,  and  by  means 
of  this  it  can  fix  itself  firmly  to  any  object  by  suction. 
From  the  remora's  habit  of  clinging  to  other  fish  or  to 
the  bottoms  of  boats,  it  soon  suggested  itself  as  an 
excellent  turtle-catcher,  for  only  very  great  force  or  care- 
ful leverage  can  dislodge  it  when  it  has  once  fastened 
itself  on  to  anything ;  and  to  this  use  it  is  still  put  in 
certain  parts  of  the  Mediterranean. 

When  such  fish  happen  to  be  netted  they  are  at  once 
placed  in  pots  of  water  and  carefully  fed  and  looked  after 
by  the  fishermen ;  a  tight-fitting  ring  is  fixed  round  the 
slender  part  of  the  body  just  above  the  tail,  to  which  a 

287 


TURTLES  AND  TURTLE-CATCHING 

cord  can  be  tied  at  need,  and  then  the  turtle-catcher  is 
ready  for  action. 

When  a  hunt  is  about  to  take  place  the  men  carry  a 
few  of  the  fish  on  board  the  boat  in  their  pots,  and  row 
off  in  pursuit  of  the  first  turtle  they  see.  If  the  turtle 
should  happen  to  be  asleep,  as  often  happens  in  deep 
water,  a  noose  is  slipped  over  his  neck  and  he  is  killed  by 
a  few  blows  on  the  head.  If  he  be  awake  and  swimming 
with  his  back  to  the  boat  he  will  still  be  easy  game,  for 
if  he  be  not  actually  deaf  as  most  fishermen  assert,  he  is 
at  best  very  dull  and  slow-witted,  and  will  often  allow 
the  men  to  come  within  hitting  distance  before  he 
attempts  to  escape. 

He  may  happen,  however,  to  turn  suddenly,  catch  sight 
of  the  boat  and  swim  calmly  off  in  another  direction. 
Now  is  the  remora's  chance,  and  everything  depends  on 
how  it  will  behave  itself.  As  soon  as  the  boat  is  within 
a  few  fathoms  one  of  the  men  throws  a  tethered  fish ;  all 
things  being  favourable  it  lights  on  some  part  of  the 
turtle's  anatomy,  clings  with  forty-leech  power,  and  is  only 
to  be  removed  with  a  slip  of  wood  or  metal  when  the  turtle 
has  been  comfortably  hauled  in  and  made  fast  alongside. 

But  often  things  do  not  go  so  well ;  the  man  misses  his 
aim,  perhaps,  or  the  turtle  happens  to  dive  just  as  the 
fish  is  thrown.  Then  the  remora  is  not  so  teachable  as 
the  cormorant,  and  it  may  absolutely  refuse  to  stick  at 
all ;  and  the  exasperated  fishermen  may  see  the  turtle 
swim  blissfully  off  while  the  fish  goes  the  opposite  way. 
Perhaps  it  will  be  drawn  up  clinging  tightly  to  a  bit  of 
sodden  drift-wood;  or  it  may  choose  to  dive  under  the 

288 


TURTLES  AND  TURTLE-CATCHING 

boat  and  take  up  a  position  on  the  keel  whence  nothing 
can  dislodge  it,  and  where  it  will  probably  be  crushed 
when  the  boat  is  beached. 

The  South  American  Indians,  in  hunting  the  fresh- 
water turtle,  still  use  sometimes  the  tethered  arrow, 
which  is  supplied  with  a  movable  point ;  some  account 
of  a  similar  weapon  has  been  given  in  Chapter  XVII, 
and  a  brief  description  of  it  will  suffice.  The  harpoon 
or  arrow,  which  is  shot  from  a  short  but  powerful  bow, 
has  an  iron  head,  the  base  of  which  fits  into  a  wooden 
peg,  the  other  end  of  which  is  inserted  in  a  hollow  at  the 
tip  of  the  shaft.  A  long  coil  of  stout  twine  is  wound 
round  the  arrow,  one  of  its  ends  fastened  to  the  shaft, 
the  other  to  the  point.  The  immense  strength  of  the  bow 
causes  the  arrow-head  to  pierce  the  tough  shell,  and  the 
shock  of  the  concussion  liberates  the  shaft ;  the  string — 
forty  yards  of  it — rapidly  uncoils  itself  and,  whether  the 
turtle  dives,  sinks,  or  swims  away,  the  shaft  is  left  float- 
ing. Men  are  waiting  in  their  canoes  and,  the  moment  a 
turtle  is  hit,  one  of  them  seizes  the  stick  and  proceeds  to 
tow  the  animal  ashore,  where,  if  it  is  not  already  killed,  a 
blow  with  a  cudgel  soon  puts  an  end  to  it. 

But  since  tortoise-shell  has  so  greatly  increased  in 
value,  methods  injurious  to  the  shell  are  seldom  used 
except  by  sportsmen,  and  wherever  we  look  nowadays  we 
shall  generally  see  the  fishermen  trying  to  take  the 
creature  alive,  and  this  may  be  done  in  various  ways.  In 
the  Indian  Ocean  and  the  Dutch  East  Indies,  whence 
some  of  the  finest  tortoise-shell  is  exported,  the  islanders 
still  follow  a  plan  that  is  at  least  a  couple  of  hundred 
T  289 


TURTLES  AND  TURTLE-CATCHING 

years  old.  Putting  out  to  sea  in  stout-built  sailing 
canoes,  the  crews  seek  a  favourable  spot  for  their  work 
(and  such  a  spot  is  not  easily  decided  upon,  for  some  of 
the  best  turtles  go  sometimes  hundreds  of  miles  out  to 
sea),  and  when  this  is  found,  slow  down  and  watch  for  the 
first  prize  that  appears. 

On  board  each  boat,  in  addition  to  the  crew,  are  several 
expert  swimmers  or  divers.  One  at  a  time  these  stand  up 
in  the  bow,  and  at  sight  of  a  turtle  one  of  them  springs 
overboard  after  it,  and  then  the  sport  begins.  Some- 
times a  dozen  men  from  the  same  boat  will  be  occupied 
with  a  dozen  turtles.  On  reaching  one  of  the  reptiles 
the  diver  swings  himself  on  to  its  back  and  sits  with  his 
legs  tucked  under  him,  thus  throwing  out  as  little  shark- 
bait  as  possible,  and  gripping  with  both  hands  the  edge 
of  the  shell  above  the  neck.  The  frightened  turtle 
plunges  forward  or  dives,  the  fisherman  still  acting  the 
part  of  Old  Man  of  the  Sea,  and,  whenever  it  is  possible, 
trying  to  guide  the  clumsy  movements  towards  the  boat. 
Everybody,  unless  prevented  by  total  immersion,  is  shout- 
ing at  the  top  of  his  voice  in  the  hope  that  the  noise  may 
drive  off  any  sharks  that  may  be  in  the  vicinity,  and  some 
of  the  crew  stand  by  with  guns  to  put  an  end  to  any  such 
interloper. 

At  last  the  turtle  is  exhausted,  the  boat  steers  towards 
the  diver,  who,  as  soon  as  a  rope  is  thrown  to  him,  loops 
it  round  the  neck  of  his  capture,  and  when  he  has  seen  it 
towed  safely  alongside,  dashes  off  towards  the  next  turtle 
that  shows  itself. 

Sometimes  one  of  these  fellows,  in  spite  of  all  precau- 

290 


TURTLE-FISHING 


On  reaching  the  turtles  the  divers  swing  themselves  on  to  their  backs,  and  sit  with 
legs  tucked  under  them,  throwing  out  as  little  shark-bait  as  possible. 


TURTLES  AND  TURTLE-CATCHING 

tions,  does  get  snapped  up  by  a  shark.  In  the  case  of  the 
divers  in  some  localities  one  does  not  hesitate  to  say, 
"  Serve  him  right,"  for  their  abominable  method  of 
obtaining  tortoise-shell  from  the  hawkVbill  turtle  is  a  dis- 
grace to  mankind.  Some  inhuman  wretch  once  discovered 
that  shell  taken  from  the  living  animal  is  more  easily 
treated,  and  may  be  a  little  more  valuable  than  that  from 
a  dead  one,  and  so  devised  a  means  of  effecting  this 
atrocious  purpose,  which  is  still  in  use  in  certain  islands  of 
the  Indian  Ocean. 

The  turtle  is  suspended  over  a  slow  fire,  or,  in  some 
cases,  is  tied  down  and  covered  with  smouldering  char- 
coal, till  the  upper  shell  begins  to  curl  outwards;  then 
this  is  torn  off  the  body  with  knives,  so  that  while  still 
hot  it  can  be  pressed  flat  between  two  boards.  The 
wretched  creature  thus  not  only  tortured  needlessly  but 
left  for  a  time  with  no  protection  against  possible 
enemies,  is  turned  loose  into  the  sea  again.  This  is 
simply  piling  brutality  on  brutality,  for  though  the  shell 
gradually  forms  again,  it  is  thin  and  of  poor  quality  and 
practically  valueless.  The  infliction  of  some  pain  is 
almost  unavoidable  in  any  form  of  fishing;  but  that 
there  should  be  civilised  buyers  who  are  willing  to  profit 
by  such  loathsome  acts  towards  a  defenceless  creature  is 
a  disgraceful  fact.  The  turning  loose  of  the  turtle  after 
this  brutal  operation  is  a  comparatively  modern  practice. 
At  one  time  it  used  to  be  killed  when  the  shell  had  been 
removed,  and  eaten ;  but  the  march  of  civilisation  has 
taught  the  islanders  that  the  flesh  of  the  hawkVbill  is 
flavourless  and  unpalatable. 

291 


TURTLES  AND  TURTLE-CATCHING 

The  Javanese  and  the  islanders  of  Keeling  and  the 
Celebes  still  eat  this  turtle,  and  are  content  to  kill  it 
before  removing  the  shell.  They  most  often  hunt  it  in 
shallow  water,  either  from  canoes  or  by  wading;  the 
turtles  are  brought  ashore,  killed  by  blows,  and  then 
immersed  in  boiling  water  till  the  plates  are  loosened. 

The  hawkVbill  is  scarcely  one  of  the  giants,  for  it 
rarely  weighs  more  than  about  two  hundred  pounds. 
Although,  as  we  have  said,  its  flesh  is  hardly  eatable,  it 
produces  the  best  tortoise-shell  in  the  world ;  it  may  be 
found  throughout  the  Indian  Ocean  and  in  the  tropical 
parts  of  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific,  some  of  the  finest 
coming  from  New  Guinea.  The  head  is  of  a  curious 
bird-like  shape,  whence  its  name. 

The  carapace,  or  upper  shell,  of  this  turtle  is  made 
up  of  thirteen  plates  arranged  in  three  longitudinal  rows, 
five  in  the  middle  and  four  on  either  side,  the  largest 
of  which  would  weigh  about  half  a  pound  and  measure 
thirteen  inches  by  eight.  These  are  the  valuable  portions 
of  the  shell.  In  addition  the  animal  has  twenty-four 
"  hoofs "  or  small  plates,  which  form  the  serrated  margin 
round  the  carapace ;  but  these,  like  the  under  shell,  are 
of  comparatively  little  value. 

Another  way  of  catching  the  turtle  alive  is  by  means 
of  a  kind  of  seine-net ;  this  is  the  method  that,  among 
the  Gauchos  and  South  American  Indians,  has  almost 
entirely  superseded  the  old  one  of  shooting  or  harpooning. 
Generally  it  is  only  employed  for  the  capture  of  the  fresh- 
water species,  but  it  may  sometimes  be  seen  in  use  among 
the  negroes  of  the  Bahamas,  who  work  it  from  the  seashore. 

292 


TURTLES  AND  TURTLE-CATCHING 

The  South  Americans  employ  a  seine  long  enough  to 
reach  almost  from  one  side  of  a  narrow  pool  to  the  other. 
The  bunt  is  unusually  deep  and  often  has  a  tow-rope 
to  it,  so  that  it  may  be  used  exactly  like  the  tuck-seine 
of  the  pilchard-fishers  ;  i.e.  both  perpendicularly  and  hori- 
zontally. It  is  corked  above,  and  lightly  weighted  below. 

With  the  exception  of  two,  all  the  hunters  stretch 
themselves  round  the  pool  as  far  as  possible,  getting  as 
close  to  the  water's  edge  as  the  marshy  banks  will  allow ; 
and  with  sticks  or  poles  beat  the  tufts  of  grass  and  rushes 
in  order  to  frighten  any  of  the  turtles  that  may  be 
lurking  there  into  open  water.  Meanwhile  the  two  other 
men  have  each  got  into  a  canoe,  carrying  the  seine 
between  them  to  one  end  of  the  pool  and  there  shooting 
it,  the  canoes  gradually  separating  till  the  net  is  fully 
extended,  the  bunt-line  —  if  used  —  being  joined  to  a 
longer  one  which  is  thrown  ashore.  As  soon  as  the  net 
is  in  readiness  the  knocking  and  howling  on  the  banks 
is  increased,  and  goes  on  for  perhaps  two  or  three  hours, 
the  canoemen  meanwhile  paddling  as  gently  as  possible, 
a  stroke  now  and  a  stroke  then,  towards  the  far  end  of 
the  pool.  As  the  net  becomes  nearly  full  they  pull  more 
sharply,  and  when  at  last  they  can  no  longer  stir  it  they 
throw  the  tow-rope  to  their  mates  on  the  banks,  leap 
to  land,  and  all  pull  together,  drawing  the  net  into  bag- 
form  and  pulling  it  high  and  dry.  I  have  heard  that 
oxen  are  sometimes  used  for  the  towing,  but  cannot  say 
how  far  this  is  true. 

Now  everybody  gathers  round  the  opening  of  the  net, 
which  is  disposed  in  such  a  manner  that  only  one  or  two 

293 


TURTLES  AND  TURTLE-CATCHING 

turtles  at  a  time  can  escape,  and  these,  as  they  come  out, 
are  clubbed  on  the  head.  Though  the  mesh  is  a  very 
large  one,  valuable  fish  are  not  infrequently  caught  with 
the  turtles ;  sometimes  a  good-sized  alligator  is  also  swept 
in,  and  extinguished  with  a  bullet  or  cudgel  before  it  can 
make  itself  in  any  ways  objectionable. 

The  land  tortoises  of  the  Galapagos  Archipelago, 
although  they  are  not  fished  for,  should  have  a  passing 
mention.  These  spend  the  greater  part  of  their  time 
away  from  the  water,  but  visit  the  streams  and  pools 
periodically,  staying  there  about  three  days  at  a  time. 
They  are  so  large  that  it  would  take  six  or  eight  men  to 
lift  one  of  them,  and  anyone  who  likes  can  sit  on  the 
back  of  one  and  ride  at  a  speed  averaging  six  yards  per 
minute,  or  a  mile  in  five  hours.  On  being  approached 
they  draw  in  head  and  limbs  and  drop  with  a  loud  clatter 
and  a  good  deal  of  hissing ;  but  all  that  the  rider  has  to 
do  is  to  take  his  seat  and  give  a  few  light  blows  on  the 
hinder  end  of  the  shell ;  then  the  legs  come  out  again 
and  the  vehicle  moves  on. 

These  reptiles  are  of  great  value  in  more  ways  than 
one.  The  eggs,  which  are  spherical,  white,  and  rather 
larger  than  those  of  a  hen,  are  laid  in  the  sand  and  care- 
fully covered,  and  the  natives  take  them  for  food  when- 
ever they  can.  Some  of  the  animals  yield  as  much  as  two 
hundred  pounds  of  solid  meat,  which  is  either  eaten  fresh 
or  is  salted  and  dried  for  export.  The  fat  is  rendered 
down  into  a  thin  oil  which  now  commands  a  high  price. 
Unless  the  tortoise  is  really  fat  the  natives  do  not  kill  it. 
Its  condition  is  ascertained  by  a  small  slit  being  made  in 

294 


TURTLES  AND  TURTLE-CATCHING 

the  skin  near  the  tail,  and  if  the  fat  is  not  then  found  to 
be  thick  enough,  the  tortoise  is  set  free  again. 

Strangers  in  the  parts  frequented  by  the  Galapagos 
tortoise  have,  in  days  gone  by,  been  very  much  surprised 
to  find  well-beaten,  path-like  tracks  leading  to  and  from 
the  springs  and  streams;  these  have  been  made  by  the 
tortoises  in  their  periodical  pilgrimages  in  search  of  water. 
On  reaching  a  pool  or  river  they  take  in  a  "sea-stock11 
or  camel's  supply  of  water,  which  will  last  them  till  the 
next  visit;  and  thirsty  travellers  on  meeting  the  animal 
have  often  saved  their  lives  by  killing  it,  just  as  desert 
wanderers  are  sometimes  reduced  to  slaughtering  a 
camel. 

The  most  popularly  known  of  all  the  turtles  is  that 
from  which  the  soup  is  made,  the  green  turtle,  whose 
home  is  all  over  the  warm  quarters  of  the  world,  though 
it  is  supposed  to  have  been  found  originally  off  Ascension 
Island ;  it  abounds  in  the  West  Indies  and  is  often  taken 
on  the  high  seas,  hundreds  of  miles  away  from  anywhere. 
Its  flesh  is  a  very  profitable  article  of  commerce  and  its 
eggs  are  highly  prized  for  their  richness.  It  is  the  largest 
of  its  kind,  often  weighing  six  hundred  pounds  and  reach- 
ing a  length  of  six  feet  or  more. 

While  it  remains  in  the  water  the  West  Indian  negroes 
dive  after  it  in  the  manner  already  described;  but  it  is 
often  found  on  the  beach  strolling  about  in  great  numbers, 
and  it  then  forms  an  easy  if  ponderous  capture.  The 
hunters  surround  a  small  group  of  them,  cutting  off  all 
retreat  to  the  water's  edge,  and  then,  with  a  batch  of  men 
to  each  turtle,  turn  them  over  on  their  backs.  This  is  not 

295 


TURTLES  AND  TURTLE-CATCHING 

as  easy  as  it  sounds ;  figures  are  deceptive,  but  if  we  bear 
in  mind  that  a  green  turtle  is  somewhere  about  the  size 
and  weight  of  a  grand  piano,  we  shall  not  only  appre- 
ciate the  difficulty  of  the  men's  task,  but  shall  hear  with- 
out wonder  that  when  it  is  once  on  its  back  the  huge  mass 
can  never  right  itself  again  and  is  easily  killed.  This, 
however,  is  not  an  invariable  rule  among  the  testudinata, 
for  the  Galapagos  tortoise,  which  sometimes  weighs  more 
than  the  green  turtle,  is  more  agile,  and  makes  no  trouble 
of  getting  back  on  its  legs  when  it  has  been  turned  over. 


296 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

AFTER  THE  SEAL  AND   THE 
WALRUS 

The  pinnipeds— The  seals  and  their  young —Seal-hunting  among  the 
Eskimos — The  seal  as  a  fighter — The  Eskimos'  summer  season — 
Varieties  of  seals— Sealing  among  civilised  fleets— Methods- 
Dangers  of  the  work— A  seal-massacre— How  the  seal-colonies 
are  founded— Sea-elephants,  sea-lions,  and  sea-bears— The  walrus 
— His  enemies— A  big  catch — Modern  methods  of  walrus-hunting. 

THE  pinnipeds  or  fin-footed  animals,  under  which 
head  are  included  seals,  sea-lions  and  walruses,  are 
even  less  like  fish  than  are  the  cetacea,  for  they 
possess  four  legs — or  members  which  serve  as  such ;  they 
are  generally  regarded  as  the  link  between  the  land  and 
the  water  mammals ;  but  as  they  spend  a  good  part  of 
their  lives  in  the  water,  and  are  shot  or  clubbed  or  har- 
pooned for  the  sake  of  their  skin,  fat,  etc.,  we  shall  devote 
a  chapter  to  these  remarkable  animals. 

A  whole  book  might  easily  be  written  about  the  charac- 
teristics and  uses  of  the  seal,  for  its  many  peculiarities 
seem  to  render  it  a  thing  apart  from  the  rest  of  the 
animal  kingdom.  It  is  born  on  land,  and  is  even  obliged 
to  learn  to  swim  before  it  can  trust  itself  in  deep  water. 
Its  land  movements  are  certainly  neither  swift  nor  grace- 
ful, for  its  funny  little  feet  are  hampered  by  their  webs, 

297 


AFTER  THE  SEAL 

and  so  its  motions  are  carried  on  mainly  by  the  muscles  of 
the  body,  with  the  result  that  its  "  walking "  is  merely  a 
series  of  awkward,  shuffling  hops ;  and  practically  the 
only  use  its  limbs  are  to  it  when  not  in  the  water,  is  as  a 
means  of  climbing  rocks,  ice,  or  a  sloping  beach.  Once  in 
the  water,  however,  few  fish  could  be  more  swift  and  un- 
tiring than  they. 

Over  their  little  ones  learning  to  swim,  many  curious 
stories — some  of  doubtful  truth — have  been  told.  Close 
observers  say  that  the  young  are  never  driven  into  the  water 
by  their  parents ;  they  maintain  that  these  have  little  or 
nothing  to  do  with  the  swimming  lessons,  for  the  little 
ones  teach  themselves.  Those  that  lie  nearest  the  water's 
edge  set  the  example  to  the  rest  by  wriggling  into  the  sea 
and  splashing  about  in  an  astonished,  half-frightened 
manner ;  when  their  heads  go  under  they  struggle  up- 
wards again,  crawl  on  to  the  beach,  and  go  to  sleep.  On 
waking,  they  return  to  their  task  ;  the  same  thing  happens 
over  and  over  again ;  dip,  ducking,  nap — always  the  nap 
— until  the  neophyte  has  become  a  proficient  swimmer. 

Among  the  seals  we  shall  not  see  that  touching  affection 
of  the  mothers  for  the  young  that  we  witnessed  with  the 
cetaceans.  The  fathers,  or  bull-seals,  do  indeed  protect 
the  babies  as  long  as  they  remain  under  their  eye,  but 
if  a  little  one  choose  to  wander  away  from  its  home,  no 
effort  will  be  made  on  the  part  of  either  parent  to  protect 
it  or  bring  it  back. 

Seals  are  by  no  means  confined  to  the  northern  regions, 
though  they  are  perhaps  more  at  home  there  than  else- 
where. Both  the  seal  and  the  whale  are  often  erroneously 

298 


AND  THE   WALRUS 

supposed  to  cling  entirely  to  the  Arctic  regions;  but 
there  are  few  non-tropical  quarters  where  some  pinniped 
or  other  may  not  be  found.  On  the  northern  coasts  of 
the  British  Isles  they  are  plentiful  enough;  they  have 
often  been  seen  in  numbers  off  the  Norfolk  coast  even ; 
and  in  inland  seas  like  the  Caspian  or  Lake  Baikal, 
thousands  of  them  are  to  be  found.  River  estuaries  and 
narrow  channels  are  their  favourite  resorts,  because  here 
the  fish  on  which  they  feed  are  less  scattered  about  and 
more  easily  obtained.  For  their  land  residence,  some 
choose  sandy  beaches,  well  sheltered  from  high  winds ; 
some  go  to  the  other  extreme  and  prefer  a  rocky,  un- 
protected shore.  In  fine  weather  they  are  content  to  lie 
about  on  the  beach  or  rocks  and  doze;  but  when  the 
weather  is  rough  they  will  scamper  about  and  play  like 
children. 

Among  the  Eskimos,  sealing  is  almost  as  old  as  the 
people  themselves ;  one  can  no  more  dissociate  the  Eskimo 
and  the  seal  than  one  can  think  of  the  Irish  peasant 
without  his  pig ;  there  is  scarcely  an  inch  of  the  animal 
that  these  clever  Arctic  folk  do  not  utilise.  The  flesh  is 
tough  and  not  sweet-smelling,  yet  they  eat  and  enjoy  it ; 
they  make  soup  of  the  blood,  and  drink  such  of  the  oil 
as  they  do  not  use  for  heating  and  lighting.  The  skin 
is,  of  course,  made  into  clothes  or  used  to  cover  their 
kayaks  and  tents;  the  tendons  become  bow-strings,  sew- 
ing  cotton  and  cord,  and  the  tissues,  dried  and  stretched, 
admit  a  certain  amount  of  light  when  fastened  over  the 
opening  of  the  hut. 

The  Eskimo  has  various  methods  of  obtaining  the 

299 


AFTER   THE   SEAL 

animal  that,  when  dead,  serves  him  in  so  many  capacities. 
Often  he  harpoons  it  as  he  does  the  narwhal,  in  ice-holes ; 
with  this  difference,  that  he,  and  not  the  hunted  animal, 
makes  the  hole.  In  winter  time  many  thousands  of  seals 
get  "  iced  up,11  just  as  the  dolphins  do ;  but  they  must 
come  up  to  breathe  from  time  to  time,  although  they 
close  their  nostrils  when  they  plunge,  and  though  there 
is  a  very  long  interval  between  any  two  respirations. 
Therefore  the  holes  which  the  fishermen  make  in  the  ice 
are  just  so  many  seal-traps,  and  all  that  the  men  have 
to  do  is  to  stand  round  the  hole  and  spear  each  luckless 
creature  as  it  comes  to  the  surface  of  the  water,  drag  out 
the  carcass,  and  take  it  home. 

When  the  frost  begins  to  break  up,  the  seals  struggle 
out  of  the  water  and  begin  to  jump  about  on  the  ice  or 
the  rocks.  Then  the  Eskimos  vary  their  methods  of 
hunting.  A  band  of  them,  armed  with  clubs,  spears,  or 
axes,  watch  the  movements  of  a  flock  of  seals  and  gradu- 
ally manage  to  cut  it  off  from  all  return  to  the  sea ;  then 
spread  themselves  round  it  and  gradually  close  in.  A  seal 
looks  such  an  innocent,  gentle  beast  when  you  see  it 
amusing  itself  at  the  Zoological  Gardens  or  Brighton 
Aquarium ;  its  merry,  yet  pathetic,  eyes  look  as  though 
they  belonged  to  an  animal  that  could  offer  no  resistance  to 
any  persecutor,  human  or  other  ;  but  sealers  tell  a  different 
tale.  True,  it  will  not  actually  pursue  a  man  beyond  the 
limits  of  what  it  regards  as  its  own  ground ;  but  in  order 
to  escape  to  the  water  when  death  is  otherwise  imminent, 
it  will  make  as  good  a  fight  of  it  as  any  other  animal. 
A  bulldog  is  a  small  thing,  but  we  do  not  care  to  be 

300 


E 


AN  ESKIMO  METHOD  OF  SEAL-FISHING 

The  Eskimo  has  various  methods  of  obtaining  the  seal  ;  often  he  harpoons 
it  through  ice-holes. 


AND   THE   WALRUS 

bitten  by  one,  and  a  seal's  bite  is  rather  worse  than  that 
of  a  bulldog,  and  a  seal  has  the  same  affectionate  way  of 
clinging  to  anything  that  happens  to  come  between  its 
teeth.  Its  nails,  too,  are  not  to  be  lightly  considered, 
seeing  that  with  them  it  can  tear  a  large  cod  piecemeal. 

When  the  prisoners  see  that  there  is  no  escape,  their 
first  instinct  is  to  huddle  together  as  closely  as  possible ; 
this  is  the  hunter's  safeguard,  for  if  that  instinct  bade 
the  animals  open  out  and  make  a  concerted  attack,  they 
could  soon  tear  a  small  body  of  their  would-be  slayers  to 
pieces. 

Gradually  the  circle  closes  in,  and  the  outer  rank  of 
seals,  howling  with  rage  and  fear,  spring  up  on  their  hind- 
quarters and  prepare  to  do  battle.  The  springing  up  is 
rather  like  the  bending  of  the  salmon  or  the  dolphin,  for 
it  is  done  by  means  of  the  backbone,  which  is  so  flexible 
that  the  animals  can  bend  themselves  almost  at  a  right- 
angle,  the  upper  part  of  the  body  being  kept  perpen- 
dicular while  the  lower  remains  horizontal. 

If  you  want  to  kill  a  seal  quickly,  hit  him  on  the  nose 
with  a  stout  stick — if  he  will  let  you  get  near  enough  to 
him.  One  would  naturally  suppose  that  a  long  spear 
would  be  most  effective ;  but  the  seal  is  far  from  being  a 
fool ;  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  he  will  be  sharp  enough  to 
seize  the  shaft  between  his  teeth,  and  even  if  he  do  not 
snap  it,  there  is  no  getting  it  away  from  him  ;  moreover,  a 
spear-point  would  have  to  be  driven  very  deeply  to  do 
him  much  harm.  Often  the  Eskimos  find  that  the  best 
plan  is  to  let  the  animal  occupy  himself  with  a  pole  or 
harpoon  while  they  club  him  across  the  nose  or  head. 

301 


AFTER  THE   SEAL 

In  summer  the  hunters  have  a  wider  field,  and  pursue 
their  game  in  a  manner  that  more  nearly  approaches 
genuine  fishing.  In  the  deep  bays  and  gulfs  of  the  Green- 
land coast,  hundreds  and  thousands  of  seals  may  then  be 
seen  disporting  themselves.  These  are  principally  the 
kind  known  as  the  Atak,  or  Greenland  seal,  distinguish- 
able by  their  short,  wiry  hair  that  has  nothing  of  the  semi- 
woolliness  of  the  common  seal  about  it ;  it  is  a  great  deal 
larger  than  most  of  its  brethren,  often  measuring  from 
six  to  eight  feet  in  length. 

The  natives,  seated  in  their  kayaks,  take  up  a  position 
among  the  floating  ice-blocks,  to  which  the  animals  will 
sometimes  flee  on  seeing  the  boats.  If  possible  they  will 
try  to  take  the  seals  by  surprise,  drifting  silently  in 
pursuit  of  single  individuals.  Arrived  within  about 
twenty  feet  of  one  of  them,  the  hunter  sits  holding  an 
oar  in  his  left  hand  and  a  harpoon  in  his  right ;  to  this 
harpoon  is  attached  a  bladdered  line,  the  same  thing  on  a 
smaller  scale  as  that  used  by  the  Eskimos  in  whaling. 
Keeping  the  buoyed  end  of  the  line  between  his  knees  or 
feet,  he  throws  the  harpoon  ;  and,  if  it  finds  a  good  mark, 
he  tosses  the  bladder  into  the  water.  Generally  the  seal 
dives,  taking  the  bladder  with  it,  but  only  for  a  moment ; 
weakened  by  pain  and  loss  of  blood,  it  is  less  able  than 
usual  to  hold  its  breath,  and  soon  comes  to  the  surface 
again,  when  the  nearest  Eskimo  gives  it  the  coup  de  grace 
with  a  stick  or  lance.  After  a  while  the  sea  becomes 
dotted  all  over  with  bladders,  and  fishing  ceases  for  the 
day ;  the  lines  are  collected  and  joined  up  in  lots  which 
are  equally  divided  among  the  kayaks,  and  towed  ashore. 

302 


AND   THE   WALRUS 

Another  large  animal  of  this  neighbourhood  is  the 
Capuchin  or  hooded  seal,  eight  feet  long,  and  possessed 
of  a  peculiar  hood-like  organ  above  its  head  which  it  can 
bring  down  at  will  over  its  nose.  Its  bite  is  as  undesirable 
as  that  of  a  mastiff,  and  it  barks  remarkably  like  one ; 
varying  the  bark  by  a  long,  wailing  whine  when  attacked. 
It  will  come  further  south  than  the  Greenland  seal,  and  is 
pursued  by  the  North  American  sealers  as  well  as  by  the 
Eskimos.  Most  of  the  skins  sold  in  England  come  from 
this  animal.  Another  peculiarity  that  it  has  is  the  power 
of  distending  its  nostrils  when  diving,  till  they  look  like 
two  great  bladders  or  pouches ;  and  it  can  remain  under 
water  longer  than  the  other  varieties.  The  Capuchin 
must  not  be  confused  with  the  Monk-seal,  or  pelagius ; 
this  inhabits  the  coasts  of  Sardinia  and  the  Adriatic, 
and  is  said  to  be  the  special  phocaena  whose  skin  the 
Romans  regarded  as  a  protection  against  a  lightning- 
stroke  ;  Augustus  Caesar  is  supposed  to  have  carried  such 
a  skin  with  him  wherever  he  went. 

The  Russians,  though  insignificant  in  a  general  way  as 
fishermen,  are  clever  and  energetic  sealers,  but  they  cling 
for  the  most  part  to  old-fashioned  methods.  In  pursuing 
the  Greenland  seal  they  build  high  wooden  towers,  from 
which  watchmen  posted  there  can  tell  the  numbers  and 
movements  of  a  body  of  seals;  and  the  fishermen  act 
"upon  information  received."  Dragging  small  boats 
over  the  ice,  they  pursue  the  seals  to  the  water ;  though 
many  hunters  prefer  to  dress  themselves  in  long  white 
smock-frocks  which  will  prevent  their  being  distinguished 
from  the  background  of  snow,  and  enable  them  to  shoot 

303 


AFTER  THE   SEAL 

or  spear  the  animals  almost  at  leisure.  This  practice  is 
probably  copied  from  the  Eskimos,  who  even  used  to  go 
the  length  of  sewing  themselves  in  sealskins  and,  at  the 
risk  of  being  torn  to  pieces,  crawl  among  a  herd  and  kill 
as  many  as  possible  with  their  bow  and  arrows. 

Sealing  among  the  British,  American,  Dutch,  Scandi- 
navian, and  Japanese  fleets  is  a  most  important  industry, 
and  is  carried  on  as  systematically — if  not  as  profitably 
and  with  as  much  risk — as  whaling.  Good-sized  ships 
of  300  tons  and  over  are  fitted  out  for  the  work,  each 
carrying  oil-tanks,  boilers,  etc.  British  Columbia  alone 
owns  several  fleets  of  such  ships.  The  means  of  catching 
depends  on  the  neighbourhood,  time  of  year,  etc.  For 
open-sea  work,  harpooning  or  shooting  from  small  boats 
is  the  surest ;  and,  where  the  fishermen  are  active  and 
industrious,  two  men  can  often  garner  a  boat-load  in  a 
few  hours.  In  spring,  this  method  is  terribly  dangerous 
in  the  northern  regions,  for  the  ice  is  breaking  up,  and 
huge  hummocks  of  it  are  floating  about ;  the  sea  is  rough 
or  choppy  by  reason  of  the  melted  snow  torrents  that  are 
everywhere  emptying  themselves  into  it,  and  the  weather 
is  still  bitterly  cold. 

The  greatest  peril  is  from  the  floating  ice ;  an  oarsman 
who  knows  his  way  about,  can  easily  dodge  a  single  block 
that  is  making  for  him ;  but  let  him  get  into  a  current 
among  a  couple  of  dozen — perhaps  a  couple  of  hundred — 
of  such  blocks,  which  are  cheerfully  jostling  and  clashing 
together !  I  am  not  quoting  an  isolated  or  out-of-the-way 
case ;  such  a  position  exists  only  too  frequently,  and  the 
annual  list  of  casualties  that  arise  in  this  manner  is  an 

304 


AND   THE   WALRUS 

alarming  one.  In  avoiding  one  ice-lump  the  boat  perhaps 
pulls  between  two  others ;  if  she  is  going  with  the  current, 
well  and  good;  she  is  through  before  the  blocks  can 
possibly  meet ;  but  often  the  current  is  awry  and  broken, 
and  as  she  passes  between  the  hummocks  she  finds  herself 
penned  right  and  left  by  ice,  and  in  front  by  a  force  of 
water  that  she  can  ill  battle  against ;  the  hummocks  bear 
down  upon  her  and  she  is  cracked  like  a  nut.  If  possible 
the  crew  will  scramble  on  to  one  or  other  of  the  blocks 
and  it  may  be  well  with  them  ;  but  the  hummock  may 
float  away,  carrying  them  out  of  reach  of  their  com- 
panions, to  be  eventually  drowned  or  starved. 

Round  about  the  Baltic,  and  in  parts  of  North 
America,  and  sometimes  in  Scotland,  the  breeding  season 
among  the  animals  is  taken  advantage  of  by  the  fisher- 
men, for  then  the  seals  are  on  land  and  can,  with  care,  be 
taken  a  whole  colony  at  a  time,  and  shot  or  clubbed. 
The  seal,  be  it  remembered,  is  one  of  the  most  intelligent 
beings  in  existence,  and  all  its  acts  and  movements  are 
undertaken  with  method  and  system.  In  summer  the 
males,  or  bulls,  come  ashore  and  seek  out  convenient 
homes  for  the  females ;  these  will  not  arrive  till  nearly  a 
month  later.  The  bulls  which  come  first  naturally  are 
able  to  choose  the  best  positions — in  caves,  if  possible ; 
if  not,  in  well-sheltered  spots  among  the  rocks.  Late 
comers  must  take  their  chance ;  they  will  try  to  take 
someone  else's  pitch,  and  a  fight,  sometimes  to  the 
death,  will  be  the  result.  Even  the  fighting  is  done  on 
systematic  lines.  Two  bulls  approach  each  other,  each  one 
pretending  to  be  interested  in  something  that  is  going  on 
u  305 


AFTER  THE  SEAL 

elsewhere ;  as  they  come  together,  one  will  make  a  feint 
with  teeth  or  nails,  dodge,  and  roll  behind  the  enemy, 
hoping  to  take  him  from  the  rear.  After  a  good  deal  of 
such  fencing,  one  will  fix  the  other  by  the  "  scruff"  of  the 
neck,  driving  his  teeth  through  skin  and  blubber,  and 
gripping  so  that  only  immense  force  can  dislodge  him ; 
and  when  the  teeth  are  wrenched  away,  they  carry  off  a 
good  deal  of  skin  and  fat  with  them. 

When  the  females  come  ashore  the  fighting  will  have 
to  begin  all  over  again,  for  each  bull  means  to  possess  as 
large  a  harem  as  possible.  He  goes  down  to  the  water- 
edge,  courteously  conducts  the  lady  of  his  choice  up  the 
beach  to  his  home,  and  leaves  her  there  while  he  goes  in 
search  of  more  wives.  While  he  is  gone  another  bull  will 
come,  take  the  bewildered  cow  by  the  neck,  and  drag  her 
gently  to  his  own  home ;  this,  of  course,  means  a  sub- 
sequent fight.  Meanwhile,  the  females  at  the  water-line 
have  become  bones  of  contention,  and  each  bulPs  strength 
and  ingenuity  must  be  exerted  to  the  full  before  he  can 
carry  off  and  keep  his  various  wives.  The  size  of  the 
harems  depends  on  the  fighting  powers  of  the  husbands ; 
one  will  have  five  females,  another  thirty-five.  Sometimes 
one  cave  will  contain  nearly  a  hundred  families  of  ten,  and 
in  such  caves  the  young  are  brought  forth  and  suckled. 

The  sealers  choose  night  time  for  a  descent  on  one  of 
these  colonies,  for  by  day  the  bulls  are  too  wary ;  even  at 
night  they  make  some  attempt  at  posting  sentries,  in 
imitation  of  the  walruses.  Putting  off  from  their  ship  in 
small  boats,  the  fishermen,  each  carrying  a  stout  pole  shod 
with  iron,  and  an  unlighted  torch,  creep  silently  to  the 

306 


AND  THE   WALRUS 

nearest  cave,  and  on  entering,  every  man  seeks  out  a  place 
where  he  can  press  himself  as  close  to  the  rock  wall  as 
possible.  Suddenly  someone  strikes  a  match;  this  is  a 
signal,  and  everyone  lights  his  torch  and  starts  shouting. 
The  wretched  animals,  thus  taken  by  surprise,  huddle 
together  or  rush  for  the  entrance ;  and  now  is  seen  the 
wisdom  of  each  man  having  packed  himself  in  as  small  a 
compass  as  possible,  for  the  stampede  is  sometimes  terrific, 
and  anyone  who  attempted  to  stem  it  would  be  trodden 
down  and  crushed  to  death,  if  not  torn  in  pieces  by  the 
infuriated  bulls. 

The  first  rush  is  allowed  to  pass  unchecked,  but  when 
it  is  over,  the  massacre  of  those  that  have  stayed  behind 
commences ;  and  in  this  way  an  enormous  pile  of  carcasses 
is  soon  stacked  up  on  the  shore,  ready  to  be  taken  aboard 
or  to  be  cut  up  on  the  beach. 

As  a  rule  the  skins  are  removed  there  and  then,  and 
with  them  the  thick  blubber-coat  which  adheres.  The 
depth  of  this  coat  may  be  anything  up  to  four  inches ; 
that  taken  from  the  young  seal  is  the  best  and  most 
plentiful,  for  a  very  interesting  reason. 

While  the  bulls  have  been  settling  about  their  future 
homes,  watching  them  and  their  families  night  and  day, 
what  time  have  they  had  for  obtaining  food  ?  Seals  live 
on  fish,  and  cannot,  or  will  not,  eat  anything  else ;  and 
for  two  or  three  months  the  whole  colony,  or  "  rookery," 
has  been  away  from  the  chance  of  fishing.  During  all 
that  time  the  adults  have  sustained  life  by  absorbing  the 
fat  with  which  their  bodies  are  so  liberally  supplied. 

The  skin  and  blubber  thus  obtained  is  made  into 

307 


AFTER  THE  SEAL 

bundles  and  taken  aboard,  though  many  fleets  set  up 
their  furnaces  on  the  beach  and  boil  the  carcasses  as  well, 
for  these  yield  a  surprising  quantity  of  oil. 

When  the  ships  reach  their  own  ports  the  blubber 
is  separated  from  the  hides ;  the  latter  are  dried  and 
salted  for  export  to  England  and  the  States,  where  they 
will  be  converted  into  leather,  while  the  blubber  is 
crushed  by  machinery,  steamed,  exposed  in  open  tanks  to 
the  air  and  sun,  and  finally  put  into  barrels. 

Between  Cape  Horn  and  the  Tropic  of  Capricorn  are 
various  other  kinds  of  seals.  One  of  them,  the  narrow- 
snout,  more  nearly  approaches  a  fish  form  than  any  other, 
for  its  claws  are  small  and  drawn  together,  so  that  they 
look  like  the  serrated  edge  of  a  fin.  The  roaring  noise 
made  by  this  variety  during  the  night  has  often  deluded 
sailors  into  the  belief  that  it  proceeded  from  the  bellowing 
of  cattle  on  shore. 

To  the  fishermen  there  are  but  two  classes  of  seals, 
haired  and  furred.  Under  the  first  head  come  all  those 
that  are  pursued  for  the  sake  of  their  fat  and  their  hide  ; 
under  the  second,  those  whose  thick  growth  of  velvety 
under-hair  makes  the  animals  one  of  the  most  valuable 
captures  that  the  sea  has  to  offer.  True,  the  fur  seal  has 
plenty  of  oil  of  its  own,  but  it  is  of  so  rank  a  nature  that 
it  is  seldom  thought  worth  while  to  go  to  the  expense  of 
clarifying  and  cleansing  it. 

The  best  fur-yielders  are  the  seals  from  round  Cape 
Horn  and  those  found  in  the  Behring  Sea ;  several 
millions  of  the  latter  haunt  the  Alaska  coast  during  the 
season.  Yet,  in  spite  of  such  apparent  abundance,  the 

308 


AND  THE  WALRUS 

fishermen  observe  the  greatest  care  as  to  what  animals 
they  destroy.  The  invariable  rule  nowadays  is,  kill  no 
females.  There  need  be  no  difficulty  in  keeping  to  this 
regulation,  for  size  is  the  predominant  distinguishing 
feature  between  the  sexes  ;  whereas  a  well-grown  bull-seal 
will  be  seven  or  eight  feet  long,  the  cows  rarely  reach 
more  than  four  feet. 

The  skin  is  at  its  best  when  the  young  male  has 
reached  nearly  the  age  of  three  years.  As  soon  as  the 
animals  are  killed  the  skin  is  removed,  separated  from  the 
fat  and  well  coated  with  salt.  A  sealskin  that  has  been 
newly  removed  would  be  almost  unrecognisable  to  those 
who  have  only  seen  the  article  when  worked  up  into  a 
lady's  jacket.  Apparently  it  is  a  mere  rough  mat  of 
coarse,  long  hair.  If,  however,  the  coat  be  closely 
examined  it  will  be  seen  that  the  hair  is  simply  an  outer 
covering  to  a  thick  mat  of  soft  fur. 

To  get  rid  of  the  long  hairs  is  easier  than  would  appear, 
for  the  roots  penetrate  far  more  deeply  than  those  of  the 
under  hair.  Therefore  it  suffices  to  peel  or  scrape  the 
inside  of  the  skin  with  sharp  knives  till  the  roots  are  cut 
free  and  the  long  hairs  come  away  like  separate  threads. 

The  skins  thus  prepared  are  shipped  to  London  or  New 
York  for  final  treatment.  Their  value  varies  according  to 
size  and  fineness  ;  some  are  worth  a  sovereign,  .others  as 
much  as  five  pounds.  Recently  South  Africa  has  gone  in 
largely  for  sealing,  and  several  thousands  of  skins  taken 
in  the  Indian  Ocean  are  sent  from  Cape  Town  to  London 
every  year. 

Three  other  important  members  of  the  family  are  the 

309 


AFTER  THE   SEAL 

sea-elephant,  the  sea-lion,  and  the  sea-bear,  all  pursued 
whenever  it  is  possible,  for  the  sake  of  their  skin  and  fat. 
These  have  an  external  ear  and  are  otherwise  distinguished 
from  the  true  seals  by  the  formation  of  their  limbs  and 
teeth.  The  sea-elephant — or  elephant-seal,  as  the  fisher- 
men call  it — reaches  a  length  of  twenty-five  feet  and 
more,  and  the  males  have  a  prolongation  of  the  muzzle 
which  has  some  resemblance  to  a  trunk.  It  is  to  be 
found  principally  off  the  southern  shores  of  South 
America,  but  it  has  no  objection  to  fresh  water,  and 
large  specimens  have  been  shot  in  the  rivers  or  on  the 
marshy  banks  or  pools  some  distance  inland.  The  people 
of  the  Argentine  regard  the  tongue  of  the  animal,  dried 
and  salted,  as  a  very  great  delicacy,  though  the  rest  of  the 
flesh  is  uneatable.  A  great  many  elephant-seals  are  har- 
pooned by  the  Antarctic  whalers  in  the  outward  or  home- 
ward course  of  the  ship ;  the  oil  is  more  valuable  than 
that  from  the  whale,  and  the  skin,  though  useless  as  "  seal- 
skin," is  tanned  for  carriage-covers,  etc. 

The  sea-lion  is  less  terrible  than  its  name  suggests,  and 
like  other  seals,  will  only  bite  in  self-defence.  It  gets  its 
name  on  account  of  the  thick  mane  which  covers  its  head 
and  shoulders,  and  perhaps  by  reason  of  its  generally 
savage  appearance  and  loud,  lion-like  bellow.  Those  of 
the  south — Chili  and  Patagonia — are  generally  snapped 
up  by  the  whalers  for  the  sake  of  their  oil;  but  the 
northern  lions — those  from  Kamchatka,  the  Aleutian,  and 
the  Kurile  Islands  generally — become,  with  the  seals  of 
that  neighbourhood,  the  property  of  the  Japanese  sealing- 
boats,  large  steam-craft  built  on  European  lines. 

310 


AND   THE  WALRUS 

The  sea-bear,  a  kind  of  fur-seal,  is  very  valuable,  and  is 
rapidly  becoming  extinct;  its  fur  is  of  a  pale  brown,  almost 
yellowish  tint,  and  this  used  to  be  exported  from  North 
China  in  great  quantities.  Some  years  ago,  however,  the 
Russians  contrived  to  get  the  greater  part  of  the  trade 
away  from  the  Chinese,  and  they  have  pursued  the  animals 
so  ruthlessly  that  they  have  left  none  for  anyone  else. 

The  establishment  of  a  close  season  for  sealing  has 
happily  now  put  a  stop  to  the  wholesale  destruction 
of  such  valuable  animals.  By  agreement  among  the  ship- 
owners, almost  the  whole  of  the  seal-fishery  is  at  present 
confined  to  the  early  spring. 

The  walrus,  morse,  sea-horse,  or  whale-horse,  is  easily 
distinguished  from  the  other  pinnipeds  by  its  two  upper 
canine  teeth  which,  projecting  downwards,  form  two 
powerful  tusks;  in  length  it  is  about  thirteen  feet;  in 
shape  very  much  like  a  seal;  in  colour  from  tawny  to 
dark  red.  It  is  only  found  in  the  northern  seas — round 
Kamchatka  is  a  favourite  locality — and  it  is  hunted  by 
the  natives  or  by  the  big  sealing-fleets  for  the  sake  of  its 
somewhat  scanty  though  exceedingly  pure  oil,  and  of  its 
tusks,  which  are  from  fifteen  to  thirty  inches  long,  and 
are  of  the  finest  and  hardest  ivory. 

The  use  of  the  tusks  is  not  primarily  as  a  weapon,  but 
as  a  means  of  progress.  In  climbing  an  ice-floe  the 
walrus  digs  the  points  in  the  surface  of  the  ice  and  easily 
drags  himself  from  spot  to  spot. 

The  skin  is  tanned  and  used  in  various  manufactures,  or 
is  cut  up  into  thongs  which  are  absolutely  unbreakable ; 


AFTER  THE   SEAL 

the  flesh  is  boiled  down  for  oil,  and  the  tusks  come  away 
uninjured  when  the  head  is  immersed  in  boiling  water. 

On  land  the  animal  is  far  more  awkward  in  its  move- 
ments than  the  seal,  though  just  as  active  in  the  water.  It 
can  remain  a  long  while  below  the  surface,  having,  like  all 
the  other  pinnipeds,  special  reservoirs  into  which  the  over- 
strained veins  can  discharge  the  blood  which  would  other- 
wise suffocate  them  when  breathing  was  suspended  for  any 
length  of  time.  A  fisherman  can  distinguish  a  walrus 
from  a  seal  at  a  great  distance  by  its  manner  of  diving ; 
whereas  a  seal  sinks  as  naturally  as  a  whale,  a  walrus 
heaves  up  its  back,  rolls  forward,  and  then  disappears. 

The  walrus  is  almost  a  vegetarian ;  its  throat  is  so 
small  that  it  could  not  even  swallow  a  herring,  and  it  lives 
on  seaweed,  which  it  ekes  out  with  molluscs  scraped  from 
the  rocks  or  burrowed  out  of  the  sand  with  its  tusks.  It 
is  of  milder  disposition  than  the  seal,  though  a  terrible 
enough  opponent  when  forced  to  fight  for  its  life.  Its 
great  enemy  is  the  Polar  bear,  and  in  the  fights  between 
the  two  animals  the  bear  does  not  always  win  ;  more  often 
than  not  a  bear  that  has  been  indiscreet  enough  to  pick  a 
quarrel  with  a  walrus  is  soon  glad  to  retire,  gored  and 
torn  and  bleeding.  To  guard  against  a  surprise  visit 
from  its  foe,  the  intelligent  sea-horse  places  sentinels 
which  give  the  alarm  by  loud  signal  roars,  at  the  first 
sound  of  which  the  walruses  all  scuttle  off  to  the  water. 
While  on  the  land  or  on  the  ice  they  are  generally  careful 
never  to  rest  far  from  the  water-line. 

As  a  profitable  occupation,  walrus-catching  is  not  what 
it  used  to  be;  two  hundred  years  ago  a  few  English 

312 


AND  THE   WALRUS 

sealers  slaughtered  eight  hundred  of  them  in  six  hours. 
Such  a  thing  could  scarcely  happen  nowadays,  for  past 
experience  has  given  the  animals  a  horror  of  ships  and 
men,  except  when  feelings  of  revenge  are  aroused  in  them  ; 
and  they  seem  to  be  steadily  migrating  further  and 
further  north.  Moreover,  on  landing,  their  instinct 
inclines  them  to  rocks  and  ice-floes  which  are  inaccessible 
to  men  and  often  to  bears. 

Nevertheless,  the  Japanese,  American,  and  English 
fleets  score  a  pretty  good  total  among  them  in  the  course 
of  a  year,  both  land  and  water  hunting.  The  procedure 
is  much  the  same  as  in  sealing,  except  that  the  vigilance 
and  unity  of  the  bands  make  the  task  more  difficult  and 
uncertain.  The  only  very  successful  way  of  killing 
walruses  on  shore  is  for  the  crews  to  sneak  in  as  quietly  as 
possible,  and  shoot  the  sentries  before  they  can  give  the 
alarm ;  then  to  spring  ashore  and  line  up  between  the 
water  and  the  herd.  On  shore  the  animals  are  unable  to 
harm  any  persecutor  who  can  keep  them  at  arm's  length, 
and  the  whole  colony  soon  fall  victims  to  the  axes  and 
pikes  of  the  fishermen. 

In  the  water  the  case  is  altered,  and  the  risk  is  so  great 
that  many  seasoned  whalers  and  sealers  will  have  nothing 
to  do  with  such  work.  The  instinct  of  the  herds  tells 
them  when  the  odds  are  against  or  in  favour  of  them ;  if 
they  are  strong  in  numbers,  and  there  is  but  one  boat,  the 
men  will  do  well  to  content  themselves  with  what  they 
can  kill  by  firing  at  long  range.  Even  then  a  herd  will 
often  follow  a  boat  for  miles. 

When  several  boats  are  attacking,  the  walruses  swim 


AFTER  THE   SEAL  AND    WALRUS 

away,  but  they  can  often  be  "cornered"  on  account  of 
their  refusal  to  land  when  pursued.  Then  when  they  find 
themselves  hemmed  between  boats  and  shore  they  make 
a  united  dash  for  the  nearest  boat,  and  the  fight  is 
generally  a  lively  one.  Some  of  the  heavy  tusks  hook 
themselves  over  the  gunwale,  and  the  boat  is  held 
prisoner,  while  others  of  the  herd  puncture  the  timbers 
and  try  to  tear  the  vessel  in  pieces  or  drag  it  under  ;  and 
it  is  not  till  rifle  and  axe  have  been  plied  unceasingly  that 
the  men  can  regard  their  lives  as  their  own. 

This  is  but  another  example  of  the  dangers  and  hard- 
ships which  are  part  of  the  fisherman's  lot.  Whether 
he  is  in  pursuit  of  walrus  or  whale,  codfish  or  herring,  his 
calling  is  a  perilous  one ;  and  what  he  adds  by  his  industry 
to  the  wealth  of  his  country  is  too  often  won  at  the  risk 
of  his  own  life. 


INDEX 


Adriatic  :  oysters,  122  ;  sponge- 
harpooning,  261  ;  fisheries, 
147,  150 

Africa  :  river  fishing,  211,  212 

Air-pump  for  divers,  256 

Albicore  or  horse-mackerel,  153 

Amber,  19,  147 

Ambergris,  249 

American  fishermen,  25,  29, 
124,  125 

Anchovy,  148-150 

Andalusian  fisheries,  148,  149, 

153 

Angling,   23;    salmon,   73-82; 

tarpon,    82-87  >    among    the 

Chinese,  180,  181 
Annam,  179,  180,  187 
Antarctic  whaling,  233,  245 
Arab  pearl-divers,  221 
Arapaima,  205-207 
Arcachon,  112,  122,  123 
"Archer,"  187 
Arctic  :  fisheries,  217  ;  whaling, 

245-249 

"  Argentine/'  230 
Armado,  207,  208 
Arrows,  206,  289 
Artificial  breeding :  fish,  70, 148 ; 

oysters,  121  :  sponge,  262 
Asiatic  fisheries,  179-190,  212- 

215 
Australia:  fisheries,  21 6;  oysters, 

122 ;  pearls  and  pearl-shells, 

230 
Austrian  fishing-fleet,  147 

Bahamas,  262 


Bait,  23,  26,  27,  52,  55,  129; 
salmon,  75,  81  ;  tarpon,  84; 
cod,  94,  1 06 ;  lobster,  168  ; 
crab,  173 

Barge,  52,  53 

Beluga,  277-279 

' e  Bending-on,''  55 

Bergen,  60,  168-170 

Biscayan  fishermen,  20,  233 

Blue-fish,  124 

Boar-fish,  151 

Board  of  Trade,  20,  193 

Boats,  24 

Bomb-lance,  246 

Breton  fishermen,  89,  99 ;  em- 
barkation of,  91 

1 '  Brisse,"  20 

British  Columbian  salmon-fleet, 
66 

Brittany,  27,  89,  148 

Brixham,  41  ;  trawlers,  33 

"Brood/'  112 

Brood-getting,  112-122 

Brown's  Bank,  101 

Bulters,  58,  174 

Caaing  whale,  277,  278 

Cachalot,  244 

Cape  Hatteras  mackerel-ground, 

126 
Canadian  fisheries,  20 ;  salmon, 

66 

Casting-line  for  salmon,  74,  76 
Catching  fish  on  land,  208 
Catching  turtles  with  fish,  287- 

289 
Caviare,  166 


315 


INDEX 


Ceylon  pearl-fishing,  221-229 

dugongs,  280 
China:     fisheries,    186;    river 

fishing,  180-186 
Christianasund    lobster -fishery 

168-170 
Cleaning  fish,   28,   57,   67,  97 

107 
Close  time,  21  ;  salmon,  71,  73 

oysters,  112  ;  seals,  311 
Cod :  Iceland,  88-99  >  American, 

IOO-IIO 

"  Cold  Wall  "current,  103 
Collecting-boats  or  carriers,  107, 

121,  127,  130,  146,  202 
Colony  of  seals,  305-307 
Columbia  river,  62,  64,  66 
Congers,  54,  194,  195 
Coral,  19,  147 
Cormorants,  182-185 
Cornish  fishermen,  156,  173 
Cowries,  19 
Crabbing,  24,  173,  174 
Crabs,  46,  119,  170-173;  fresh 

water,  173;  land,  172,  173 
"Cran,"  145 
Cray-fish,  170 
Creels,  55 

Currents,  28,  103,  168,  194,  222 
Cutter-rigged   smacks,   25,   41, 

113)  193 
Cuttle-fish,  26,  210 

Dabs,  47 

Dangers  of  the  fisherman's  call- 
ing, 28,  29,  33,  49,  90,  98,  lor, 
103,  156,237,304,  305,  314 

Danish  cod  crews,  89 

Diodon,  209,  210 

Dip-nets,  185,  189,  211 

Divers:  pearl,  221-227;  sponge, 
2^51-259;  turtle,  290;  of 
Tierra  del  Fuego,  211 

Dogger  Bank,  33,  37,  54 

Dog- whelk,  117,  219 

Dolphin,  265-268 

Dory  work,  102-106 


Dragonet,  150 

Dredge,  27,  114 

Dredging :  oysters,  113-121; 
mussels,  52;  sponges,  259- 
260 

Drift-nets,  26,  137-144 

Drum-fish,  212 

Dugong,  280,  281 

Dutch  :  fishing-boat,  43 ;  fisher- 
men, 43  ;  Banks,  39  ;  oyster- 
beds,  122  ;  whaling,  233 

East  Coast  fishermen,  33 

East  Indies,  172,  204,  220,  289 

Eels,  200,  201 

Egypt,  204,  211 

Eskimos  :  fishing,  217  ;  sealing, 

299~302  5  whaling,  232 
Essex  shrimpers,  42 
Experience,  27,  28 

Faroe  Islands,  92,  268 

Fighting-fish,  187 

Finns,  69,  70 

Fishermen,  27-29;  attitude  to- 
wards strangers,  32,  33,  176 

Fish-wheel,  65 

"  Five-fingers,"  56,  117 

"  Fleet"  of  nets,  26,  140,  161 

Florida,  130;  Keys,  262 ;  sponge, 
262-264 

Fly-crabs,  46 

Flying-fish,  83,  86,  87,  210,  214 

Fox-fish,  47 

Fox-shark,  243 

Fraser  River,  60-62 

French  fishermen,  100, 104,  105, 
125,  155 

French  trawling,  101,  104,  105 

"Fry":  oyster,  112;  salmon, 
62 

jlaffing  salmon,  80 
Galapagos  tortoise,  294-5 
aalilee  (Sea  of),   151  ;  fishing, 
213 


316 


INDEX 


Ganges,  150,  269 

Garum,  150 

Gear,,  25-27 

Gentles,  23 

Gill-net,  102,  107-110,  129 

Grampus,  270 

Grand  Banks,  20,  100-110 

Greek  sponge  divers,  251-259 

Greenland,  20  ;  whale,  245 

Greenlanders,  272,  277,  279 

"  Greenlanders'  whale,"  278 

Grilse,  62,  78 

Grimsby,  39,  41,  124,  146,  191 

Gulf  of  Maiiaar,  221-225 

Gulf  of  Mexico,  82, 83, 125, 131, 

287 
Gulf  Stream,  83 

Haddock,  25,  36,  56,  151 
Hag-fish,  56 
Hake,  194,  199 
Halibut,  56,  194,  199 
Hardanger  Fjord,  68 
Harpoon,  153,  235-242 
Harpoon-gun,  246 
Harpooning :  fish,  205  ;  sponge, 

260 ;  whales,  235-242 
Hatch-boats,  58,  132 
Hawaiian  outriggers,  216 
Hawk's-bill  turtle,  291 
Herring,  19,  129,  130,  133-146 
Herring  fishery :  American,  129, 

130;  Norwegian,  146;  British, 

I33-M5 
Historical  notes,  20,  59,  60,  125, 

220,  232,  233,  266,  272 
Hooks,  19,  23,  54-56,  105 
Hooking  for  sponge,  263 
Horn-mussel,  50 
Horse-power  for  nets,  65,  150, 

154 

Iceland,  93  ;  cod,  93-98  ;  nar- 
whal-hunting, 272,  277 

Indian  Ocean,  187,  210,  252, 
291 

Indians  spearing  salmon,  66 


Inia,  269 

Irish  fisheries,  41,  147,  191-202 

Irish  fishermen,  193 ;  salmon- 
fishing,  74-80 

Isinglass,  166,  213 

"Islandais,"  98,  102 

Italian  fisheries,  148 

Ivory :  narwhal,  275  ;  walrus, 
3" 

Japan:  fisheries,  188-190;  seal- 
ing, 304 

"John  Dory,"  151 
Jotunfeld,  68,  81 
Jumping  salmon,  60,  61,  66,  81 
Junks,  1 86,  1 88 

Keeling  Island,  172 
Kent  Flats,  112 
Kentish  fishermen,  29,  113 
Kuro  shiwo  current,  66 

Labrador  current,  103 

Lapps,  69 

"Last,"  145 

Law  as  to  salmon,  70,  71 ;  crabs, 

174 

Levant,  152,  251 
Life  on  board  a  smack,  34,  35, 

91-97 
Lines  and  line-fishing,  25,  53- 

58,  155 

Ling,  199 

Lobsters  :  Colonial,  168  ;  Nor- 
wegian, 1 68  ;  pots,  167-168 

Lorcha,  186 

Lowestoft,  33,  124,  191 

Luggers,  24,  134,  193 

Lug-sail,  24,  176,  1 86 

Lythe,  136,  137 

Mackerel,  124 

"  Mackerel  guide,"  or  gar-fish, 

195 

Magna  Charta,  20,  70 
Maigre,  151 


317 


INDEX 


Malacca,  179 

Malay  :  fishermen,  173;  pirates, 
186,  215 

Manatee,  281-283 

ManatidaB,  280 

Mango-fish,  213 

Man  overboard,  198 

Massacre  of  seals,  309 

"Maze,"  or  "Mease/  145 

Mediterranean:  fish,  148-155; 
sponge,  251-262 

Menhaden,  132 

"  Mermaid's  Glove,"  251 

Migration  :  anchovy,  148  ;  mac- 
kerel, 127  ;  salmon,  60-62 

Moored-nets,  27,  63,  66,  69,  72, 
107,  1 10,  150 

Mother-of-pearl.     See  Nacre 

Mullet,  130,  150 

Murex,  19 

Mussel,  50-53 ;  fresh-water,  220; 
pearl,  230 

Nacre,  218-219,  230 

Narwhal,  272-277 

Natural  salmon-traps,  63,  68 

Nets.  See  Moored -net,  Drift- 
net,  etc. 

Newfoundland,  100,  107,  278 

Nile,  2 1 1-2 1 2 

Norway,  67,  81,  168 

Norwegian :  salmon-fishing,  67- 
69,  8 1,  82  ;  whalers,  92,  234, 
245 

Oil:  cod,  88;  dugong,  280; 
seal,  299 ;  porpoise,  272 ; 
shark,  152 ;  sturgeon,  166 ; 
whale,  245,  249 

Oyster,  19,  111-123;  heds,  121, 
123 ;  pearl,  220,  221 ;  varie- 
ties, 122 

"  Oyster-catcher,"  123 

Oyster-catching,  122 

Packing  pilchards,  163 
Pearls  :  fixed,  228  ;  loose,  229 


Phosphorescent   track   of   fish, 

127,  136,  140 
Pilchard,  148,  156-164 
Pilchard-seine,  158-162 
Pilot-fish,  152 
Pinna,  155 
Pinnipeds,  297-314 
Piracy,  104 

Porpoises,  135,  215,  270-272 
Portuguese  fishermen,  20,  125, 

1 86 
Pots,  27,  167;  crab,  173,  174; 

lobster,  170;  whelk,  177 
Prawns,  50 

Private  grounds,  71,  121 
Proas,  215 
Puget  Sound,  62,  63 
Purse-seines,  126,  127 
Push-nets,  23,  42 

Queen  Charlotte  Sound,  63 
Queensland,  168 

Rafts,  24,  180-185 

Ray,  200 

"Red  snappers,"  131 

Registration  of  nets,  70,  158 

Remarkable  hauls,  77,  127 

Remora,  287-289 

Re-stocking    oyster-beds,    113, 

122 

Rod-and-line  fishing,  23,  73-87 
Rorqual,  243 
Russian   sturgeon-fishing,    164- 

166 ;  sealing,  303 

St.  Ives,  156-158 

St.  Peter  and  the  tribute  money, 

I5i 

Sampan,  188 
Sardines,  148,  163 
Saw-fish,  152 

Scandinavian  fishermen,  29,  67 
School  of  whales,  237 
Schooners,  25,  101 
Scotch  fisheries,   33,    52,    134; 
salmon,  71 


INDEX 


Sea-bear,  311 

Sea-cat,  196 

Sea-cow,  281 

Sea-elephant,  310 

Sea-horse,  271,  311 

Sea-lion,  310 

Sea-mouse,  119 

Sea  products,  19 

Sea-serpent,  214 

Sea-spider,  119 

Sea-swallow,  69 

Sea-urchin,  118,  119 

Seals,  297-311 

Sealing,  189,  304-311 

Seasons    for    fish :     cod,     89 ; 

mackerel,   125;   salmon,  74; 

shrimps,   43  ;    herring,    1 33  ; 

lobster,    169 ;    mullet,    130 ; 

pilchard,  157 
Seines,  26,  64,  68,  71,  148,  149, 

279 

Seine-boat,  158 
Sharks,    124,    127;   skin,    152; 

oil,  152  ;  teeth,  19 
Shark-charmers  of  Ceylon,  226 
Shrimps,  23,  42,  44,  50 ;   boil- 
ing, 48,  49 ;  opossom-shrimp, 

217 

Shrimping,  42-49 
Shoals:  herring,  135;  mackerel, 

126 ;  pilchard,  157 
Shore-weirs,  124,  128 
Siam,  1 80,  187 
Sicilian  fisheries,  153,  154 
Signalling  the  shoals,  158 
Signs  of  a  shoal,  133,  149,  153, 

157 

Skate,  19,  200 
Skins,  196 

Slaughtering  tunny-fish,  154 
Smacks,  25,  33 
Smolt,  62 

Snapper  turtle,  286 
Sogne  Fjord,  68 
Soles,  19,  56,  117,  193 
Soosoo,  269 
South  African  fisheries,  168,  309 


South  American  fisheries,  204- 

211 

South  Sea  Islands,  215 

Spain,  122,  148 

Spawn  :  salmon,  61  ;  cod,  89  ; 
oyster,  112;  whelk,  175 

Spawning  time  :  cod,  107  ;  sal- 
mon, 60-62;  oyster,  112; 
mackerel,  130;  tunny,  153; 
pilchard,  157;  sturgeon,  164 

Spearing:  fish,  205,  212;  nar- 
whals, 274 ;  turtles,  289 

Sperm  whale.     See  Cachalot 

Sperm  oil,  249 

Spermaceti,  249 

Spitzbergen,  20,  233 

Sponge:  diving,  251-258  ;  hook- 
ing, 263  ;  dredging,  259 

Spy-glass  for  sponge  fishing, 
260 

Squid.     See  Cuttle-fish 

Stake-nets,  71 

Steam-trawling,  40 

Sterlet,  165 

Stop-seines,  159 

Stow-nets,  72 

Stromo  :  dolphin -hunting  in, 
268 

Sturgeon,  20,  164-166 

Sucking-fish.     See  Remora 

"  Sulking  "  salmon,  79 

Superstitions  among  the  fisher- 
men, 104,  118,  119 

Sweep-nets,  71 

Sword-fish,  152 

Tackle:  salmon,  74,  75;  tarpon, 

84 

Tarpon,  82-87 
Taxing  of  salmon-nets,  72 
Terrapin,  286 
Testudinata,  285 
Thunder-fish,  211 
Tierra  del  Fuego,  210 
Torpedo  or  electric  ray,  155 
Tortoises,  285 
Tory  Island,  202 


319 


INDEX 


Transplanting:    "brood/'    113, 

122 ;  mussels,  52 
Traps  :  beluga,  279  ;  eel,  201 
Trap-nets,  69 
Trawls,  26,  34 

Trawling,  30-41 ;  Irish,  194-199 
Tropics,  83,  308 
"Trots,"  174 
"Tucking,"  162 
Tunny,  153-15$ 
Turbot,  19 
Turtle,  147,  284-296 
Typhoid  from  oysters,  123 
Tyrian  purple,  19 

United  States,  20;  fish,  132; 
fishermen,  29,  104,  124,  125  ; 
fishing  stations,  124;  fisheries, 
124-132 ;  treaty,  21 


Walrus,    311;     hunting,    311- 

3M 

"Wash,"  120 
Whales,  231,  232 
Whaling,  234-249 
Whalebone,  243 
Whelks,    174-178;    red,    123, 

i?8 

Whelk  tingles,  123 
Whelk-boats,  176 
Whiting,  47 
Wind,  84,  222 

Xebecs,  149 

Yarmouth,  33,  191 
Yawls  or  yawl-rigged   smacks, 
24,  33,  9i 


WILLIAM   BKENDON   AND  SON,    LTD. 
PRINTERS,   PLYMOUTH 


YC  20289 


